The Pope's chattiness has
gotten him into some trouble, and the Vatican has gone into
damage-control mode to clarify, correct or put his comments into
context.
Here are some examples, and the responses by the Vatican's spin
doctors.
DID FRANCIS REALLY CONSIDER TURNING DOWN THE JOB?
In an interview with La Repubblica, editor Eugenio Scalfari
quoted the pope as saying he was "seized by a great anxiety" moments
after his election and asked the cardinals in the Sistine Chapel to give
him a few minutes time to think things over.
"To make it go away and relax, I closed my eyes and made every
thought disappear, even the thought of refusing to accept the position,
as the liturgical procedure allows," he was quoted as saying.
"At a
certain point I was filled with a great light. It lasted a moment, but
to me it seemed very long. Then the light faded, I got up suddenly and
walked into the room where the cardinals were waiting."
The pope was
quoted as saying he signed the acceptance form and went out on the
balcony to be introduced to the world as Pope Francis.
But the Rev Thomas Rosica, who helps with Vatican media relations,
later said the interview didn't reflect Francis' real words. He said
Scalfari neither recorded the conversation nor took notes,
reconstructing the conversation from memory and printing it as a
verbatim interview.
The Vatican doesn't dispute the overall thrust of
the interview, which Scalfari said he submitted to Francis for review
and which the Vatican newspaper reprinted verbatim.
But Rosica said the
purported "mystical" experience recounted by Repubblica after the
election didn't happen, though Francis himself has said previously and
in public that "I didn't want to be pope."
CAN ATHEISTS BE SAVED?
One of the novelties introduced by Francis has been his daily 7am
Mass in the Vatican hotel, to which groups and individuals are invited.
Francis delivers homilies each day, the contents of which are summarized
by Vatican Radio. On May 22, he caused no shortage of confusion when he
suggested that even atheists could find salvation.
According to church teaching, the Catholic Church holds the "fullness
of the means of salvation" — a message that has long been taken to mean
that only Catholics can find salvation. But in his homily, Francis
said: "The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of
Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! 'Father, the atheists?'
Even the atheists. Everyone!"
Rosica issued a lengthy "explanatory note" a few days later after
being inundated with questions about whether Francis was changing church
doctrine on salvation. He noted that church teaching also holds that
"those who through no fault of their own" don't know about Jesus but
seek God and try to do his will can also attain eternal salvation.
"Always keep in mind the audience and context of Pope Francis'
homilies," Rosica cautioned. "His words are not spoken in the context of
a theological faculty or academy nor in interreligious dialogue or
debate. He speaks in the context of Mass."