Jorge Mario Bergoglio
Pope Francis
God Is Always Near
Conversations with Pope Francis
Edited by
Giuseppe Costa
Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Copyright 2014 © Libreria Editrice Vaticana
English-language copyright © 2015 by
Our Sunday Visitor, Inc.
Published 2015.
20 19 18 17 16 15 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
ISBN: 978-1-61278-914-9 (Inventory No. T1697)
elSBN: 978-1-61278-920-0
LCCN: 2015940018
Cover design: Tyler Ottinger
Cover photos: CNS photo/Paul Haring
Interior design: Dianne Nelson
Printed in the United States of America
Table Of Contents
Giuseppe Costa, S.D.B
The Flight from Rome to Rio de Janeiro
Pope Francis’s Meeting with Journalists
Monday, July 22, 2013
Rede Globo
For a Church That Is Near
Gerson Camarotti
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Radio Catedral
For a More Humane Culture
Saturday, July 27, 2013
The Flight from Rio de Janeiro to Rome
Pope Francis’s Meeting with Journalists
Sunday, July 28, 2013
La Civiltà Cattolica
An Interview with Pope Francis
Antonio Spadaro, S.J.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
La Repubblica
The Pope: “This Is How I’ll Change the Church”
Eugenio Scalfari
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
La Stampa
“Never Be Afraid of Tenderness”
Andrea Tornielli
Monday, December 16, 2013
Corriere della Sera
“Benedict XVI Isn’t a Statue. He Is a Participant in the Life of the Church”
Ferruccio de Bortoli
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Pope Francis’s Interview with Young People from Belgium
Monday, March 31, 2014
The Flight from Tel Aviv to Rome
Pope Francis’s Meeting with Journalists
Monday, May 26, 2014
La Vanguardia
The Great Revolution Is to Get to the Roots
Henrique Cymerman
Thursday, June 12, 2014
Il Messaggero
A Change of Era
Franca Giansoldati
Sunday, June 29, 2014
La Repubblica
The Pope: “Like Jesus, I’ll Use a Stick on Pedophile Priests”
Eugenio Scalfari
Sunday, July 13, 2014
The Flight from Seoul to Rome
Pope Francis Meets with a Group of Journalists
Monday, August 18, 2014
Introduction
The interview continues to be one of the most frequently employed journalistic genres, provided that it is used intelligently. Religious journalism is not exempt from this logic. Today, many journalists working in this field hope and dream of interviewing personalities from the religious world, both the highly prominent and the less than prominent. Understandably, interviewing the pope remains one of the highest aspirations of those who have the good fortune to report on religion.
Ever since Alberto Cavallari interviewed Pope Paul VI—today Blessed Paul VI—for the Italian national daily Corriere della Sera, some fifty years ago, the desire of journalists to “find out” a pope’s opinion has grown and expanded, as have the ever-increasing number of interviews with bishops and cardinals. Obviously, not all interviews are satisfactory as regards their form. When, however, the person being interviewed is a pope, an interview in book form is very useful, as was the case with the German journalist Peter Seewald, who edited Light of the World in 2010, based on his conversations with Pope Benedict XVI. Without a doubt, the interview form in this case attained its maximum potential in terms of expression and communication.
As the number of papal trips has multiplied, we have seen