Caravaggio’s The Calling of St Matthew, to which the Pope refers in his interview.

Pope Francis recently gave a long interview over three meetings to the editor of the Jesuit review La Civiltà Cattolica, Fr Antonio Spadaro SJ.

The Pope does not feel comfortable with interviews: he prefers to have time to think and qualify what he says. According to Fr Spadaro, in this much-acclaimed interview, the Bishop of Rome often went back to add something to what he had earlier said.

The transcript of the interview was later approved for publication by the Pope. So, far from being something to which Pope Francis gave little consideration, the interview is the fruit of his mature thought.

If we place moral rules above the core gospel message of mercy, we put the cart before the horse

This newspaper commented editorially on the interview, also listing several excerpts from the text, published alongside comments by Maltese personalities. I shall here comment positively both on the essential change the Pope calls for and on three aspects of the interview not stressed so far.

Firstly, the Pope talks about the most essential change he envisages. He refers to Caravaggio’s painting portraying the call of St Matthew, a sinner when called by Jesus: Pope Francis identifies with him, humbly, perhaps surprisingly, referring to himself too as a sinner. The passage narrating Matthew’s call ends with Jesus saying “learn the meaning of the words: mercy is what pleases me, not sacrifice... I came to call not the upright, but sinners” (Mt 9:13).

The essential change is the stress on the proclamation of the message of salvation, the good news that Christ, the Son of God, shed his blood, died and rose again to save us from the darkness of sin in all its forms and bring us God’s mercy. The gospel message is one of joy, because God is loving and merciful and we are pardoned.

Clearly, the gospel also has moral implications – such as fully respecting the life and dignity of each person, fidelity in marriage, loving the poor and those marginalised, acting justly, being truthful, standing up for fundamental human rights, caring for the environment, and so forth.

But the Pope is saying that if we place moral rules above the core gospel message of mercy, we put the cart before the horse. The starting point must always remain the gospel message. If we stress moral rules above the gospel itself, “the moral edifice of the Church” itself is “likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the gospel”. First put across the heart of the message of salvation, then indicate its moral implications – not the other way round.

Secondly, while Pope Francis favours change in the Church on several fronts (going out to the ‘periphery’, reform of some aspects of the Roman Curia, and so forth), he knows that, concretely, “real, effective change cannot be done in a hurry”. Besides, the Pope refers to ‘clear’ Church teaching on faith and morals: so change cannot mean that such teaching will be altered, as some commentators seem to imagine.

Thirdly, in a Church marked by God’s mercy, the Bishop of Rome reaffirms the importance of the nowadays oft-neglected sacrament of confession. Pope Francis says it offers the possibility of evaluating case by case, discerning how best to help a person seeking God and grace. In confession, a person must experience first-hand God’s loving mercy and find motivation to do better.

Fourthly, there is the stress on discernment as a tool for leadership in the Church. Discernment, along with other Ignatian elements in the interview, forms part of the Jesuit tradition in which the Pope was formed.

Discernment includes consultation, but goes beyond it. It enables a person to go deeply into an issue, seeing and judging more clearly what the Lord really wants. “Discernment is always done in the presence of the Lord, looking at the signs, listening to the things that happen, the feelings of the people, especially the poor,” the Pope says.

In his core message, the Pope is not saying anything totally new, but in correctly putting the horse before the cart, he reaffirms the life-giving “freshness and fragrance of the gospel”.

Fr Robert Soler is a member of the Society of Jesus.