Pope Francis spoke about immigration, surrogacy, and abuse in an interview with CBS News, parts of which aired on “60 Minutes” on Sunday night.
Clerical abuse “cannot be tolerated,” Francis told CBS’s Norah O’Donnell.
“When there is a case of a religious man or woman who abuses, the full force of the law falls upon them. In this there has been a great deal of progress,” he said.
The pope said the Church “must continue to do more.”
“Unfortunately, the tragedy of the abuses is enormous. And against this, an upright conscience and not only to not permit it but to put in place the conditions so that it does not happen,” he said.
(Francis gave his remarks in Spanish, which CBS translated into English.)
Turning to immigration, O’Donnell told the pope she grew up in Texas, where the Catholic charity on the border with Mexico – the Annunciation House – offers undocumented migrants humanitarian assistance.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is trying to shut it down for helping undocumented immigrants.
The pontiff said this is “sheer madness.”
“To close the border and leave them there, that is madness. The migrant has to be received. Thereafter you see how you are going to deal with him. Maybe you have to send him back, I don’t know, but each case ought to be considered humanely. Right?” Francis said.
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He was then asked why there is such “indifference” to the plight of migrants.
“Do you want me to state it plainly? People wash their hands! There are so many Pontius Pilates on the loose out there… who see what is happening, the wars, the injustice, the crimes… ‘That’s OK, that’s OK’ and wash their hands. It’s indifference. That is what happens when the heart hardens… and becomes indifferent. Please, we have to get our hearts to feel again. We cannot remain indifferent in the face of such human dramas. The globalization of indifference is a very ugly disease. Very ugly,” Francis said.
The pope said migration is something that makes a country grow.
“They say that you Irish migrated and brought the whiskey, and that the Italians migrated and brought the mafia… (laugh) It’s a joke. Don’t take it badly. But, migrants sometimes suffer a lot. They suffer a lot,” Francis said.
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O’Donnell also asked the pope about the Catholic Church’s teaching on surrogacy.
“In regard to surrogate motherhood, in the strictest sense of the term, no, it is not authorized. Sometimes surrogacy has become a business, and that is very bad. It is very bad,” Francis said.
O’Donnell then noted that, “sometimes for some women it is the only hope.”
The pope said this “could be.”
“The other hope is adoption. I would say that in each case the situation should be carefully and clearly considered, consulting medically and then morally as well,” he continued.
“I think there is a general rule in these cases, but you have to go into each case in particular to assess the situation, as long as the moral principle is not skirted,” Francis said.
CBS is scheduled to run the full interview with Pope Francis on Monday evening.
