Pope Francis Calls Out ‘Conservative’ American Bishops on ‘60 Minutes’

Pope Francis on Sunday railed against conservative bishops in the United States who oppose his efforts to revitalize the Catholic Church.

When quizzed by CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell over the issue on Sunday’s 60 Minutes, the 87-year-old provided an unexpected response.

“You used an adjective, ‘conservative,’” Pope Francis said. “That is, conservative is one who clings to something and does not want to see beyond that. It is a suicidal attitude. Because one thing is to take tradition into account, to consider situations from the past, but quite another is to be closed up inside a dogmatic box.”

The Pope spoke to 60 Minutes through a Spanish translator, granting the program a rare interview at the Vatican in which they chatted for more than an hour on controversial topics including the Israel-Hamas war, the Russian invasion of Ukraine (“those children don’t know how to smile”), the migrant crisis and the Pope’s views on antisemitism.

“All ideology is bad, and antisemitism is an ideology, and it is bad,” Francis said at one point. “Any ‘anti’ is always bad. You can criticize one government or another, the government of Israel, the Palestinian government. You can criticize all you want, but not ‘anti’ a people. Neither anti-Palestinian nor antisemitic. No.”

Pope Francis set the record straight on his thoughts on same-sex marriage, after announcing in December that Roman Catholic priests will be able to bless same-sex couples–albeit with a number of caveats.

“What I allowed was not to bless the union. That cannot be done because that is not the sacrament. I cannot. The Lord made it that way,” he said, according to 60 Minutes.

“But to bless each person, yes. The blessing is for everyone. For everyone. To bless a homosexual-type union, however, goes against the given right, against the law of the church. But to bless each person, why not? The blessing is for all. Some people were scandalized by this. But why? Everyone! Everyone!”

When confronted about the Catholic Church's record of sexual abuse against children, he 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.”

According to 60 Minutes, he also “told us he opposes allowing women to be ordained as priests or deacons,” as well as surrogacy, because “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.”

He said in response to the fact surrogacy might be a woman’s only “hope” that, “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. 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.”

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