VATICAN CITY
Catholic Culture
In an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Pope Francis praised Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical on contraception.
Emphasizing that confessors should be merciful, Pope Francis said that his predecessor’s “genius proved prophetic: he had the courage to stand against the majority, to defend moral discipline, to exercise a cultural ‘brake,’ to oppose present and future neo-Malthusianism. The question is not that of changing doctrine, but of going into the depths, and ensuring that pastoral [efforts] take into account situations, and what it is possible for people to do.”
“Cases of abuse are terrible because they leave very deep wounds,” Pope Francis said. “Benedict XVI was very courageous and opened up a path. The Church has done so much on this path.”
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