Pope Francis has said he tries to dialogue with those who disagree with him in the hope that he will learn something; but he just prays for those who call him a heretic.
“When I perceive resistance, I seek dialogue whenever it is possible; but some resistance comes from people who believe they possess the true doctrine and accuse you of being a heretic,” the Pope told a group of Jesuits during a meeting in Santiago, Chile.
“When I cannot see spiritual goodness in what these people say or write, I simply pray for them,” Pope Francis said in response to a question about the “resistance” he has encountered as Pope.
The exchange was part of the usual question-and-answer session Pope Francis has with Jesuit communities during his Papal trips abroad. With the Pope’s approval, the Jesuit journal Civilta Cattolica publishes a transcript of the conversation several weeks later.
Pope Francis told the Jesuits in Chile that he tries not to think of opposition as “resistance”, because that cuts off an opportunity for dialogue, discernment and learning something or at least recognising a need to explain something better.
Resistance
As for blogs and internet sites devoted to leading the “resistance” against him, Pope Francis said: “I know who they are, I know the groups, but I do not read them for my own mental health.”
People are naturally resistant to change, and “this a great temptation that we all faced in the period after the Second Vatican Council”, the Pope said. The resistance continues today with some people trying to “relativise” or “water down” the Council’s teachings and the course it set for the church.
Reiterating what he had told Jesuit communities over the past five years, Pope Francis told the groups in Chile and Peru that the Church needs them to share their expertise in St Ignatius of Loyola’s formal process for discernment, which involves prayerfully seeing where God is at work and where God wants to lead a person.
“One of the things that the Church most needs today is discernment,” the Pope said. “This is put very clearly in the pastoral perspectives and objectives of Amoris Laetitia,” the 2016 apostolic exhortation on the family.