Pope Francis assures that killing defenseless civilians as Israel has done in Gaza “is also terrorism” and that reducing “the population to hunger produces the same senseless terror,” in one of the passages of his autobiography that is published this Tuesday in Italy.
“Esperanza” (Plaza & Janés), written for more than 6 years with the Italian journalist Carlo Musso and which will later be released in more than 80 countries, was intended to be published after the death of the pontiff, but it was finally decided to do so on the occasion of the Jubilee that is celebrated this year.
The 88-year-old pope recounts episodes from his childhood and adolescence, as well as others that occurred during the Argentine dictatorship and the beginning of his pontificate, in addition to revealing two failed attacks during his trip to Iraq, and also reviewing many of the conflicts and current international crises.
Thus, Francis mentions his attempts to mediate in the war in Ukraine and his request even to travel to Russia, to which the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, replied “that it was not the time.”
He also explains his pain on October 7, 2023 with the Hamas attacks. “For me it was twice painful: in that massacre I lost old Argentine friends who lived in a kibbutz on the border with Gaza,” he says.
But he adds: “To that disaster, to that barbarism, another, enormous one would later be added: the Israeli air raids, which would cause thousands of innocent deaths, especially women and children; and hundreds of thousands of evacuees, houses destroyed, people one step away from famine…”
The pontiff reports that he is constantly in contact with Gaza and with the church of the Holy Family, whose parish priest is the Argentine priest Gabriel Romanelli, which welcomes families and the sick, “turned into a scene of death.”
“Mrs. Nadha Khalil Anton and her daughter Samar Kamal, who was a cook in the home of disabled children in the care of Mother Teresa’s nuns, were killed by an Israeli army sniper while they were on their way to the convent and trying to protect themselves. mutually. Others were killed in cold blood around the parish, a small Christian community that mourns the death of more than twenty of its members,” he describes.
And then he accuses: “That is also terrorism. The war that kills defenseless and unarmed civilians, even Caritas volunteers who distribute humanitarian aid, that relentlessly torments civilians, that reduces the population to hunger produces the same senseless terror.”
The pope also criticizes “the shameful inability of the international community and the most powerful countries to put an end to this massacre; the wave of hatred has become a tidal wave of violence.”
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Francisco also refers to his health and that even after the operations and hospitalizations he has “never” thought about resigning, while in the face of death he confesses: “Although I know that he has already granted me many, I have only asked the Lord for one more grace: take care from me, let it be whenever you want but, you know, I am quite afraid of physical pain… So please, don’t let it hurt me too much.”
The Pope reiterates that the Church welcomes everyone, “even divorced people, also homosexual people, even transsexual people.”
“But they are children of God! They can receive baptism under the same conditions as other faithful, and under the same conditions as others they can be accepted as godfather or godmother, as well as be witnesses at a wedding. No law of canon law prohibits it,” he writes in the book.
And, remembering that many countries persecute gays, he reiterates that “homosexuality is not a crime, it is a human fact, so the Church and Christians cannot remain indolent in the face of this criminal injustice, nor be faint-hearted.”
The pope also recalls details of his youth. “I also felt attracted to two girls at that time, one from Flores, from the parish, and another from the Palermo neighborhood.”
“We went out in a group, we went to dance the tango. I was seventeen years old and I already felt within me the restlessness of the vocation to the priesthood. Both ladies are still alive and I would see them again as a bishop: one headed a parish in the Caballito neighborhood and the other still lived in Palermo; “They were both married and had children,” he reveals.
With information from EFE.
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