Pope Francis condemned growing anti-Semitism during a rare and wide-ranging interview with 60 minutes which aired on Sunday.
The 87-year-old pontiff described anti-Semitism as “bad ideology,” while calling for an end to the war in Ukraine and criticizing global indifference to suffering.
“There are so many Pontius Pilates loose out there… who see what is happening, the wars, the injustice, the crimes… ‘Okay, it’s okay’ and they wash their hands,” he said.
‘It’s indifference. That’s what happens when the heart hardens… and becomes indifferent. Please, we have to make our hearts feel again… The globalization of indifference is a very ugly disease. Ugly.’
Speaking about anti-Semitism, the Pope said that it was part of an ideology and that: ‘Every ideology is bad, and anti-Semitism is an ideology, and it is bad. Any “anti” is always bad.
‘You can criticize one government or another, the Israeli government, the Palestinian government. You can criticize all you want, but not “anti” a people. Neither anti-Palestinian nor anti-Semitic. No,” he continued.
The 87-year-old pontiff called anti-Semitism a “bad ideology,” while calling for an end to the war in Ukraine and criticizing global indifference to suffering.
The rare interview with Norah O’Donnell aired Sunday night
When Norah O’Donnell asked him if he could help negotiate peace in the world’s current conflicts, he said: ‘What I can do is pray. I pray for peace. And also, suggest: “Please stop. Negotiate.”
In a more light-hearted exchange, O’Donnell spoke of his parents who fled Ireland to the United States in the 1930s in search of a better life. Pope Francis’ family left Italy for Argentina after the rise of Benito Mussolini, the pontiff joked.
‘They say that you Irish emigrated and brought whiskey, and that the Italians emigrated and brought the mafia… (laughs) It’s a joke. Do not get it wrong. But immigrants sometimes suffer a lot. They suffer a lot.”
From there, the conversation turned to the southern border of the United States, with the Pope talking about the closure of a Catholic charity that offered services to migrants.
‘That’s crazy. Pure madness. Closing the border and leaving them there, that’s crazy. The migrant must be received. Then you will see how you are going to deal with him. Maybe it has to be returned, I don’t know, but each case must be considered humanely. Good?’
The interview took place on April 24 inside his modest residence in Vatican City.
Pope Francis was also asked what he thought about the conservative backlash against his papacy, and many of his critics were members of the American clergy.
The interview took place on April 24 inside his modest residence in Vatican City.
Pope Francis has clashed with the conservative wing almost since he was elected head of the church in 2013.
He responded by saying that a conservative is someone who “holds on to something and doesn’t want to see beyond it.”
“It is a suicidal attitude,” the pontiff said, according to a brief excerpt of the transcript made available by CBS on Thursday.
“Because it is one thing to take into account tradition, to consider situations from the past, and quite another to lock oneself in a dogmatic box.”
Pope Francis has clashed with the conservative wing almost since he was elected head of the church in 2013.
Measures conservatives oppose include papal attempts to make the church more welcoming to the LGBT community and to give laypeople more responsibility in the church.
Last year, Francis fired a conservative American bishop who was harshly critical of his papacy and called the conservative wing of the American Church “reactionary.” He is also a conservative American cardinal with some Vatican privileges.