FULL TEXT: Press conference of Pope Francis upon his return from Luxembourg and Belgium

This September 29, Pope Francis returned to Rome after visiting Luxembourg and Belgium. On the return flight she answered questions about sexual abuse, the Middle East, the role of women and defended her desire to beatify Belgian King Baudouin.

Below is the full text published by Vatican News.

Matteo Bruni:

Good afternoon everyone, thank you Your Holiness for this time that you want to dedicate to us at the end of this short but very intense journey. Perhaps you would like to say a few words to us before we begin with the journalists’ questions.

Pope Francis:

Good morning and I am available for questions

Michael Merten, Luxemburger Wort:

Holy Father, Luxembourg was the first country and many people remember their visit to the Expresso bar. I would like to ask you what your impressions of Luxembourg are and if there is anything that has surprised you.

Pope Francis:

Thanks, the bar is a joke. Next will be the pizzeria. Luxembourg impressed me a lot as a balanced society, with balanced laws, also another culture. That impressed me a lot, because I didn’t know her. Belgium, on the other hand, I knew because I have been there several times. But Luxembourg was a surprise, because of the balance, the reception, it is something that surprised me. I think that perhaps the message that Luxembourg can give to Europe is precisely this.

Valerie Dupont, French-speaking Belgian public TV:

Holy Father, thank you for your availability. Excuse my voice, but the rain has affected me a little. His words about King Baudouin’s tomb caused a bit of astonishment in Belgium…

Pope Francis:

But you already know that wonder is the beginning of philosophy and that’s fine.

Valerie Dupont:

Maybe. Some also saw it as political interference in the democratic life of Belgium. The king’s beatification process is linked to his position. And how to reconcile the right to life, the defense of life, and also the right of women to have a life without suffering?

Pope Francis: It’s all life, huh. The king was brave because faced with a death law he did not sign and resigned. That takes courage, right? It takes a politician ‘in pants’ to do that. It takes courage. He also gave a message with this and he also did it because he was a saint. He is not yet a saint, but the beatification process will continue, because we have had proof of it.

The woman. A woman has the right to life: to her life, to the life of her children. Let us not forget to say this: an abortion is murder. Science tells you that in the month of conception all the organs are already there… You kill a human being. And the doctors who lend themselves to this are – allow me the word – hitmen. They are hitmen. And that cannot be argued. A human life is killed. And women have the right to protect life. Another thing is contraceptive methods. There is no need to confuse. Now I only talk about abortion. And that cannot be debated. Excuse me, but it’s the truth.

Andrea Vreede, Belgian Flemish and Dutch TV:

Your Holiness, also during this trip to Belgium you had a long encounter with a group of victims of sexual abuse. Often in your stories there are cries of despair about the lack of transparency in the procedures, the closed doors, the silence towards them, the slowness of disciplinary measures, the cover-ups you talked about today, the problems about compensation for the damages suffered. In the end, things only seem to change when they can talk to you, in person. In Brussels, victims also filed a series of lawsuits. How do you plan to proceed with these lawsuits? And wouldn’t it be better, perhaps, to create a special department in the Vatican, an independent body perhaps, as some bishops ask, to better deal with this scourge in the Church and restore trust to the faithful?

Pope Francis:

Thank you. The last one… There’s an apartment in the Vatican, huh. There is a structure, the president is now a Colombian bishop for cases of abuse. There is a Commission and Cardinal O’Malley created it. That works! And all things are received in the Vatican and discussed. I have also received the abused in the Vatican and I give strength for us to move forward. This is the first thing. The second, I have listened to the abused. I think it is a duty. Some say: statistics say that 40-42-46% of those abused are in the family and in the neighborhood, only 3% in the Church. That doesn’t matter to me, I stay with those who are in the Church! We have the responsibility to help the abused and care for them. Some need psychological treatment, we have to help them with that. There is also talk of compensation because in civil law there is one. In civil law I think it is 50,000 euros in Belgium, it is too little. It is not something that is needed. I think that’s the number, but I’m not sure. But we have to take care of the abused and punish the abusers, because abuse is not a sin of today that may not exist tomorrow… It is a trend, it is a psychiatric illness and that is why we must put them in treatment and control them that way. You cannot leave an abuser free in normal life, with responsibilities in parishes and schools. Some bishops gave priests who did this, after the trial and conviction, jobs for example in the library, but no contact with children in schools, in parishes. But we have to continue with this. I told the Belgian bishops not to be afraid and to move forward. Shame is covering oneself, that is shame.

Courtney Walsh, pool Tv USA:

Thank you very much for your time. We read this morning that 900 kg bombs were dropped for the targeted assassination of Nasrallah. There are more than a thousand displaced, many dead. Do you think Israel has gone further against Lebanon and Gaza? And how can this be resolved? Is there a message for the people there?

Pope Francis:

Every day I call the Gaza parish by phone. There are more than 600 people there, parish and school, and they tell me the things that happen, even the cruelties that occur there. What they tell me I don’t really understand how things have been. But the defense must always be proportional to the attack. When there is something disproportionate it shows a dominant tendency that goes beyond morality. A country that does these things with its forces – I mean any country -, that does these things in such a “superlative” way, are immoral actions. Even in war there is a morality to protect. War is immoral, but the rules of war imply a certain morality. But when this is not done, you see – we say in Argentina – “bad blood.”

Annachiara Valle, Familia Cristiana:

Thank you, Your Holiness. Yesterday after the meeting at the Catholic University of Louvain, a statement was issued where, I read, “the University deplores the conservative positions expressed by Pope Francis on the role of women in society.” They say that it is a bit restrictive to talk about women only for motherhood, fertility, care, which is actually a bit discriminatory because it is a role that also corresponds to men. And linked to this, both universities raised the question of ordained ministries in the Church.

Pope Francis:

First of all, this statement was made at the time I was speaking. It was done beforehand and this is not moral. I always talk about the dignity of women and I said something that I cannot say about men: the Church is a woman, she is the wife of Jesus. Masculinizing the Church, masculinizing women is not human, it is not Christian. The feminine has its own strength. In fact, women – I always say it – are more important than men, because the Church is a woman, the Church is the wife of Jesus. If this seems conservative to those ladies, I am Carlo Gardell (famous Argentine tango singer, ed.). It is not understood… I see that there is an obtuse mind that does not want to hear about this. Women are equal to men, what’s more, in the life of the Church, women are superior, because the Church is women. In the ministry, the mystique of women is superior to the ministry. There is a great theologian who has done studies on this: what is greater, the Petrine ministry or the Marian ministry? The Marian ministry is greater because it is a ministry of unity that implies, the other is a ministry of leadership. The motherhood of the Church is a motherhood of women. The ministry is a very minor ministry, given to accompany the faithful, always within motherhood. Several theologians have studied this and say that this is real, I’m not saying modern, but real. It’s not old-fashioned. Exaggerated feminism that means that women are sexist does not work. It is one thing for machismo to go wrong and another thing for feminism to go wrong. What is important is the woman Church, which is greater than the priestly ministry. And sometimes this is not thought about.

But thanks for the question. And thank you all for this trip, for the work you have done. I’m sorry that time here is short. But thank you, thank you very much. I pray for you, you pray for me. Pray for me, hey!

(The Pope remembers the tragedy of the fifty people lost at sea off the Canary Islands)

It hurts me to see those people lost in the Canary Islands. Today many emigrants seeking freedom are lost at sea or near it. Let’s think about Crotone, right? 100 meters away… (your land). Let’s think about there. This must be mourned.