Transcript:
Your Excellency, Phil Pullella, I am a correspondent for Reuters. How do you see your role? I would venture to say that most of the people in this room are very critical of the current pontiff. So how do you see your role in talking to the Pope? Will you be seeing him while you’re here?
My relationship with the Pope, of course, he is the Peter of our time. I am a bishop, a member of the college of the bishops, and so the most important relationship with the Pope is a brotherhood, fraternity. First, the Pope is not a boss in a worldly manner, and the bishops are not employees. This would be very worldly; this is not correct. Our Lord Jesus Christ said to people, to Peter and the apostles, Do not dominate your brothers. And so, therefore, the bishops must have the freedom to speak to the Pope; otherwise, there is no true fraternal relationship. When I am not able, or when I am fearing that when I will speak, even an admonition with reverence, of course, to the Pope to help him, then we have no fraternal relationship. There is no true collegiality. There is fear, and this should not be in the church.
Even Pope Francis sometimes called the bishops to have “parrhesia.” It means this is free speech, and he likes this, and this I try to do, always in a respectful form. This is important. When I am in my conscience as a bishop, seeing some dangers for the entire body of the church, we are a family. The church is not an NGO; we are a family. In a family, you can say to the father or to the elder brother respectfully, and also give some admonitions. And this climate should be in the church, but this is missing. I am saying bishops are intimidated. Many do not have the courage to say something for the love of the Pope, even. And when I am doing this, I am really saying this in all my conscience, it is for love for him, for real brotherly love. And I will tell him, “Holy Father, I am your best friend.”
I have never prayed so much for anyone in my life as for Pope Francis, really. And when I made some statements even publicly, I did this for love for him, to help him, as Saint Paul did to Peter in Antioch, or as some saints did in the past. Saint Bridget, Saint Catherine of Siena addressed the popes with very clear statements. And so I think this should be our climate in the church.
The “Dubia,” yes. I consider the “Dubia” presented by the five Cardinals, including the present Cardinal here, Robert Sarah, a great work. It will go down in history as a heroic act. I think it will go down in history. We should live not for this time, we should live for the next 100 to 200 years and for eternity. This matters, what was said today about this, but it is objectively, I think it was a must, a needed action of the Cardinals to present the Pope with “Dubia” in clarity. And I think it is a meritorious, heroic act.
Claire Jean, from Religion News Service. Since we are on topic, I would like to know what both of you think about the answers that Pope Francis provided regarding the “Dubia.”
The answers the pope provided are unfortunately unsatisfactory. They cause more “Dubia” than they resolve. We have to be honest. We cannot make some fictions here and lie to one another; it would not be honest. We are not little children. We have to be honest. The answers were confusing, vague, and part of the confusion. The answers, this must be stated. Unfortunately, we have to state this and then pray for the Pope, to help him, maybe to give clearer answers.