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POPE FRANCIS HAS hit out at the “hypocrisy” surrounding his decision to allow blessings for same-sex couples and has labelled some of Israel’s actions as “terrorism” in a new memoir.
Earlier this week, Francis released his memoir Hope: The Autobiography.
It’s the first memoir by a sitting pope and was originally meant to be released after his death.
In it, he hits out at the “hypocrisy” surrounding his decision to formally allow priests to bless same-sex couples
Some priests had already been doing for many years, but in December 2023, Francis formally approved such blessings, saying God’s love and mercy should not be subject to “an exhaustive moral analysis” to receive it.
“Of course, there is always some resistance, often linked to inadequate knowledge or some form of hypocrisy,” said Francis in his memoir.
He said that “receptiveness, and certainly not relativism, nor any change of doctrine, is the spirit and heart of the declaration”, though he added that it is the “people who are blessed, not the relationships”.
“Everyone in the Church is invited, including people who are divorced, including people who are homosexual, including people who are transgender,” said Francis.
“The first time that a group of transgender people came to the Vatican, they left in tears, moved because I had taken their hands, had kissed them… As if I had done something exceptional for them. But they are daughters of God!”
“They can receive baptism on the same conditions as other believers and can perform the responsibilities of godparents on the same conditions as others, and likewise be witnesses to a marriage. No provision of canonical law forbids it.”
He noted that over 60 countries criminalise homosexuality, and writes: “Homosexuality is not a crime, it is a human fact, and the Church and Christians cannot remain indifferent in the face of this criminal injustice, nor can they respond faint-heartedly.”
And to members of the LGBT community who have “personal experience of ‘the refusal of the Church’”, Francis said “this was the refusal of one person in the Church, because the Church is a mother gathers together all of her children”.
He added that while “sexual sins tend to cause more of an outcry from some people, they are really not the most serious”.
“They are human sins, of the flesh,” said Francis.
“The most serious, on the contrary, are the sins that have more ‘angelicity’, that dress themselves in another guise: pride, hatred, falsehood, fraud, abuse of power.”
He added: “It is strange that nobody worries about the blessing of an entrepreneur who exploits people, and this is a grave sin, or about someone who pollutes our common home, while there’s a public scandal if the pope blesses a divorced woman or a homosexual.
“Opposition to pastoral open-mindedness often uncovers these hypocrisies.”
Elsewhere, Francis describes the Hamas massacres of 7 October, 2023 as “diabolical and brutal”.
“I too lost Argentinian friends in that carnage, a double grief, people I had known for years, who lived in a kibbutz on the border with Gaza,” said Francis.
But he then writes that “added to that barbarity, there was another immense barbarity, through Israeli raids, tens of thousands of innocent deaths, mostly women and children, hundreds of thousands evacuated, homes destroyed, people on the brink of starvation”.
Pope Francis is in regular contact with the Holy Family Church in Gaza and writes that the Church complex has “become a theatre of death”.
“Others too were killed in cold blood in the parish precincts,” said Francis. “This too is terrorism.”
Meanwhile, he writes that the “only possible path” for the Middle East is the two-state solution outlined in the Oslo Accords.
“It is the wise solution of two clearly delineated borders and with a special status to Jerusalem,” said Francis.
“Otherwise, any solution built upon revenge and violence, wherever they are, can never bring peace, and will only scatter new seeds of hatred and resentment, generation after generation, in an endless chain of subjugation.”
While the title of the memoir is “Hope”, it starts on a downbeat note.
“Each day the world seems more elitist, and each day crueler, toward those who have been cast out and abandoned,” writes Francis.
“Developing countries continue to be drained of their finest natural and human resources for the benefit of a few privileged markets.”
He likens climate change and poverty to war, and warned that “people continue in many respects to regard migration as an invasion”.
“They play ping-pong with the lives of human beings, and they adopt an attitude that is not only profoundly inhuman but is harmful to themselves.”
Recounting a visit to the Aegen sea where many migrants have died while, Francis writes: “We can no longer allow that flow of containers, of humanity driven back, fraternity denied, to continue to represent us, to represent the disgrace of the European Union.
“We can no longer allow the Mediterranean, which for thousands of years has united different populations and distant lands, to be transformed into a cold cemetery of unmarked graves.”
He also worries about the impacts of social media and the impacts it can have on democracy.
“Democracy doesn’t seem to enjoy excellent health,” writes Francis.
He adds that an “information system based on social networks in the hands of extremely powerful oligarchs can only represent a further danger that we must keep an eye on”.
Francis also hits out at the “concentration and exaggerated monetisation” of the social media and how it has become “vulnerable to disinformation and the targeted distortion of facts”.
Meanwhile, Francis spoke about deepfakes, which he describes as the “creation and circulation of images and voices that seem perfectly real but are false”.
An AI-generated image of Francis went viral several years ago, showing him in a white puffer coat.
“I myself have ended up as the object of one,” said Francis, referring to images such as the one above.
He also describes himself in the memoir as a “sinner” and adds that he is surprised when people themselves express surprise at this pronouncement.
“This is what I said when they asked me if I agreed to be elected as pope: ‘I am a sinner, but I trust in the infinite mercy and patience of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in a spirit of penance I accept’.
“I still commit errors and sins, and I make confession every 15 or 20 days.”
Moments after his election and prior to his first appearance as pope, Francis said he was “offered a beautiful golden cross” but he replied: “I have this nickel silver one from my episcopal ordination, I’ve been carrying it for twenty years.”
And as for the red papal shoes often worn by his predecessor Benedict XVI, Francis too was offered these but responded: “The red shoes? No, I have orthopaedic shoes. I’m rather flat-footed.”
In the memoir, Francis also speaks about his health and looks ahead to his passing.
In July 2021, Francis underwent intestinal surgery where he had half of his colon removed due to a condition known as “stenotic diverticulitis”.
A second surgery was required in 2023.
In his memoir, Francis remarked that “each time a pope takes ill, the winds of a conclave always feel as if they are blowing”.
While Francis said the “reality is that even during the days of surgery I never thought of resigning”, he acknowledged that resigning is “always a possibility” and that should he resign, he would “remain in Rome, as emeritus bishop”.
He further writes in his memoir that while he is “well” now, “the reality is, quite simply, that I am old”.
“Indeed, it was the pain in my knee joint that I found to be the heaviest physical humiliation,” said Francis.
“It was embarrassing at first to have to use a wheelchair, but old age never arrives by itself, and it must be accepted for what it is.”
He revealed that he does physiotherapy twice a week as a result, as well as doing “as many steps as I can”.
Francis writes in his memoir that he “had the feeling” his papacy would be “brief, no more than three or four years”.
“I never imagined that I would have made all those journeys to more than sixty countries,” he wrote.
He also reveals that he will not be buried in St Peter’s Basilica, writing: “The Vatican is the home of my last service, not my eternal home.”
He also described the funeral service planned for him as “excessive” and has “arranged with the master of ceremonies to lighten it”.
Meanwhile, Francis said that “going out for a pizza is one of the small things” he misses most since becoming pope.
He also missing being able walk freely in public.
“The streets tell me so much, I learn a lot from them,” writes Francis.
“A pizza eaten on an outside table, has quite a different flavour from the one that’s delivered to you.”
Elsewhere, Francis writes about the need for priests to have humour and to refrain from being “like old bachelors”.
“Humour is genuine wisdom,” writes Francis.
“It means relating with others, since it is easy to laugh together and almost impossible to do it alone.”
He bemoaned the fact that priests “sometimes come across bitter” and as “sad priests who are more authoritarian than authoritative, more like ‘old bachelors’ than wedded to the Church, more supercilious than joyful, and this is certainly not good”.
And like he has done on many other occasions, Francis used his memoir to criticise those who gossip.
“Since I was a child, I have always tried to avoid those who gossip, those who speak ill of others,” said Francis.
“I have always regarded this as a grave sickness. Gossip, mudslinging, is by no means an innocent vice: It is instead a plague that carries discord and suffering.”
Meanwhile, Francis encouraged the faithful to leave room for doubt.
“It is no good a person saying with total certainty that they have met God,” writes Francis.
“If someone has answers to all the questions, this is proof that God is not with them.
“It means that they are a false prophet, someone who exploits religion, who uses it for themselves.
“We need to be humble, to leave space for the Lord, not for our false securities.”
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