The many 'sayings' of Pope Francis

It is no state secret that Pope Francis the first has taken the world by storm since his appointment as the 266th successor to the chair of St. Peter on March 13th this year. It is also no secret that to a large extent, his leadership style is perceived as largely different from that of his predecessors, especially his immediate past two predecessors.

From his utterances on popular subjects such as homosexuality, sexual abuse of children and minors especially by members of the clergy, the corruption within the church and the roman curiae, breakdown of the smallest unit of the church which is the family; indeed there has been no shortage of controversial subjects and the Holy Father has, at different times in different places and through various media, shared his personal opinion on most if not all these matters.

In truth reading some of the Holy Father's comments, I confess sometimes I have been discomfited, dismayed and even downright disappointed with the way the Holy Father has responded to some questions; but be that as it may, I think I am happy to say that I have not yet gotten to the point of despondency and the following paragraph will explain why.

Reading through excerpts of various of the Holy Father's interviews, I have realized that while still holding firmly to the church's teaching, he has never denied the 'what', that there is an issue, but has always sought to turn our minds to the 'how', how to deal with and relate with people dealing with this issue. When the Holy Father says who is he to judge homosexuals, and in other cases when he iterates that regardless of a person's orientation what is demanded is to show love, he takes the emphasis away from 'what' and encourages the faithful to focus on 'how'. This is the main tone of his apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, which focuses on the new evangelization and the need for a joyful proclamation of the gospel to the entire world. Even in the encyclical Lumen Fidei which means The Light of Faith', faith is described as the only virtue capable of illuminating every area of the life of man but to experience it in its full measure, it goes hand in hand with truth.

Noted that the Holy Father has said many things, there have also been many false sayings attributed to the Holy Father, most recent among them this viral article titled 'Pope Francis condemns racism and declares that "All religions are true" at historic third Vatican council'. I have read the article in its entirety and anyone who knows the Holy Father would know that those are not his words. To start with, no third Vatican Council has taken place. Also the writer of the article clearly writes that the article is his own opinion and is a satire.

Enough said about what the Holy Father has or hasn't said. The good thing about this is that his utterances have caused me personally to learn more about the faith and the church's teaching and position on several salient matters.

I encourage us all to read more, learn more and go deeper in the faith so that we can defend our mother the church and all who speak up against her.