“I don’t know where this idea sprang from. Women in the Church must be valued not ‘clericalised’. Whoever thinks of women as cardinals suffers a bit from clericalism.”
OK good that we’ve cleared that up.
Pope Francis also tackled questions about the exclusion of divorced Catholics who have remarried outside of the church:
“I spoke about baptism and Communion as spiritual food that helps one to go on; it is to be considered a remedy not a prize. Some immediately thought about the sacraments for remarried divorcees, but I did not refer to any specific cases; I simply wanted to point out a principle. We must try to facilitate people’s faith, rather than control it. Last year in Argentina I condemned the attitude of some priests who did not baptize the children of unmarried mothers. This is a sick mentality…The exclusion of divorced people who contract a second marriage from Communion is not a sanction,” he said. “It is important to remember this.”
The interview with Pope Francis is quite fascinating (he even discusses Christmas) and can be found in full here.
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