What the Pope Didn't Say

After Thursday's release of the pope's interview the main stream media wrote headlines such as: "Pope Says Church Is ‘Obsessed’ With Gays, Abortion and Birth Control."  I read the whole interview and did not see that anywhere. Not surprisingly, the media did not publish these comments:

"The church sometimes has locked itself up in small things, in small-minded rules. The most important thing is the first proclamation: Jesus Christ has saved you. And the ministers of the church must be ministers of mercy above all. The confessor, for example, is always in danger of being either too much of a rigorist or too lax. Neither is merciful, because neither of them really takes responsibility for the person. The rigorist washes his hands so that he leaves it to the commandment. The loose minister washes his hands by simply saying, ‘This is not a sin’ or something like that. In pastoral ministry we must accompany people, and we must heal their wounds.

“We need to proclaim the Gospel on every street corner, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing, even with our preaching, every kind of disease and wound."

When the media finally discovers that the pope actually cannot reverse the Church's stand on abortion, contraception and homosexuality, they will just say "move on, move on, nothing to see (or report) here."