“I’ve been talking for a long time, we are living the third world war in bits and pieces”. The Pope reiterated this in an interview with Fabio Marchese Ragona, broadcast by Canale 5. “That of Ukraine wakes us up a bit because it is close, but Syria has been in a terrible war for 13 years. Yemen how much? Myanmar, everywhere in Africa. The world is at war. It hurts so much, it hurts so much. Then, even hunger, the cold, has so many things that a war brings you, destruction. The arms trade. The arms industry, an industry that instead of advancing humanity does things to destroy. We are crazy. I’ll tell people, please, let’s not be afraid, but let’s cry a little. We miss crying today about these cruelties”. Bergoglio recalls: “I have received many children from Ukraine here who bring them to the audience. No one smiles, no one, they greet you but no one can smile, who knows what that child saw…”.
The Pope denounces again “the madness of war and it always happens like this, with regard to the other parts, it’s like this, it’s like this. War began with Cain. The Cainistic Spirit. Who kills out of jealousy, kills for an interest, you know? It’s ugly. Now the social consequences, the consequences throughout Europe”.
Bergoglio does not fail to reflect on the consequences of war: “These are the effects of war, prices fly, objectivity is lost. It cannot be maneuvered because everything is connected. Everything is connected. There are some countries, I am thinking of Yemen, where there is the possibility of starving children. And this (pointing to the bill, ed) is the inflation typical of war. This is gas, then there’s light. I once remember a lady who had fought in the Second World War (Ed), I met her in Buenos Aires, she had two children and her husband who died at the front, and when she spoke, that phrase remained in my heart: ‘we had hungry, we were hungry’. Neither you nor I know what it was, what it is, to go hungry. Will we know, maybe? There are many people who are already starting to know (pointing to the bill, ed)”.
QATARGATE – “How come, with the need that there is in Europe for so many things, these people who are in the administration slip into corruption in this way?”. Speaking of Qatargate, the Pontiff says that all of this “scandalizes”.
CHILDREN AND FAMILY – The Pope makes a new appeal to stem the demographic winter. “In Italy right now we need to help families to be born. Many women – says Bergoglio in the interview broadcast by Canale 5 – are afraid of getting pregnant because as soon as the head of the company where they work sees that their stomach is growing, he sends them away. And many women can’t find work because employers are afraid that she will get pregnant. A child is a threat right now. But where are we? It should be a blessing. That’s why I think we have to start again. I say, Italians, please have children The homeland needs children, please. Less selfishness”.
”There is a demographic winter today in Italy for births, calculations, isn’t there? Once I heard a gentleman of a certain age, not old but mature, who said ‘who will pay my pension tomorrow if there are no births?’ laughing a little. There is the culture of procreation, of the culture whereby no, children are better not to. Better to take a trip, buy the villa. I know people – the Pope points out – who think this way”.
“Some countries, such as France, have implemented very good pro-family measures and for this reason the level of births in France has risen quite a bit. But in Italy – observes Francesco – at this moment we need to help families to be born”.
CARDINAL PELL – The Pope praises Australian cardinal George Pell, former prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, who ended up in prison on pedophilia charges and was acquitted after unjustly serving more than one hundred days in prison. Bergoglio, referring to the things he had to do and instead would have liked to avoid in the almost ten years of his pontificate (the finish line in March), says: “The economic part. I don’t like this. I only gave indications. But organizing this which, thank God, is going well with the Council for the Economy, with the Secretariat for the Economy. All this was seen clearly by Cardinal Pell, who is the one who started this. Then he had to stay almost two years in Australia for this slander they made on him – who was innocent, but they made him ugly, poor fellow – and he walked away from this administration, but it was Pell who outlined how we could go on. He’s a great man and we owe him so much.”
“When I was elected – he explains – I took as a program all the things that we said with the cardinals in the pre-conclave meetings to the next Pope who would be present there, but no one knew who he was. I took this as the path to go forward. There are also things to do, but it is moving forward. It’s good because the cardinals who had been there helped me a lot to make this change”.
“One of the things that is seen most, which is not the most important but the one that is most seen – observes the Pontiff – is economic cleansing, avoiding that there are bad things economically. Now that Institution is strong. These days it is The Council for the Economy has met, it is working well. They have given the indications for carrying this forward. I have begun to do, with everyone’s help, what the cardinals had asked for. But, above all, missionary spirit, the missionary spirit, the proclamation of the Gospel”.
CHRISTMAS – The nativity scene at Jorge Mario’s house Bergoglio beat the Christmas tree, the Pontiff confesses in the interview.”There was always the small family nativity scene. Christmas for us was the nativity scene, not the tree, it’s curious: it was not customary for us to have a tree at home. We did the nativity scene”, recalls Bergoglio.
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