Pope Francis has said that his life in the hands of God and that he only asks Him that he does not die in pain.
Pope Francis gave an exclusive interview with Argentine shanty-town newspaper, La Carcova News, recently and was asked if he was scared by threats to his life.
Following reports earlier this month, that ISIS had threatened the Vatican, Pope Francis told an Argentinian newspaper: “Look, life is in the hands of God. I told the Lord: take care of me, but if your plan is that I die or that they do something to me, I ask you only one favour: that they do not hurt me. Because I am a big coward when it comes to physical pain.”
In the interview, the Pope also confirmed that he would visit Argentina at the beginning of 2016 but “nothing is certain yet because other trips must be organised to other countries.”
When reflecting on the transmission of faith through the family, the Pope also revealed that discovering that a child does not know how to make the Sign of the Cross, hurts him.
When asked what is the most important thing we can give our children the Pope replied: “The most important thing is faith. It hurts me a lot when I meet children that do not know how to make the sign of the cross. These children have not received the most important thing a father and mother can give them: the faith.”
The Pope also said that our way of expressing love must extend beyond virtual boundaries. He said: “You can love another person, but if you do not extend your hand, you do not give a hug, it is not love; if you love someone enough to marry them, meaning to desire to give yourself to them completely, and you do not hug them, you do not give them a kiss, it is not true love. Virtual love does not exist. Declaring virtual love exists, but true love anticipates physical, concrete love. Let us go to the essential of life, and that is the essential.
“So, no youth-mannequin that will only be informed of virtual things, but rather youth that feel and with their own hands – this is the essential – to carry out one’s life. I like to speak about the three languages: the language of the head, the language of the heart and the language of the hands. There has to be harmony amongst them. Such that you think what you feel and what you do, you feel what you think and what you do, and you do what you feel and what you think. That is the essential.To only stay in the virtual world is like living in your head without a body.”
The full transcipt of the Pope’s interview can be found here.
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