Pope Francis Signals Possible Openness To Just About Anything At This Point

Pope Francis has said that he is open to the possibility of permitting basically anything to address the serious issues facing the Church, unless that thing is not in line with what he thinks.

During an interview with the German newspaper Die Zeit, Pope Francis said that traditions and things that date back to times before his election to the papacy would not stand in his way.

“We need to think about whether it could be a possibility to begin allowing things that we’re not used to allowing,” he said. “If so, we would need to determine what those things are.”

This is not the first time Francis raised eyebrows with comments regarding allowing something that had not been allowed before, or that gave hope to a group of people that thought he would allow something even though he would not.

Francis recently discussed the possibility of allowing female deacons, saying theologians should study the example of Scripture.

“What did this mean at that time of the Bible? What does it mean today? Seriously, though, I don’t know. Someone please study things and tell me the answer to the things that you studied. In the meantime, I will keep saying things might be permitted until I am told that they are or are not possible of being permitted by me. I beg that you don’t take long because I’m not going to wait for an answer. If confronted with a question, I will say that it should be investigated. After that, I will leave it to you priests, bishops, and laymen to explain to everyone how I was misunderstood and how my words are always taken out of context.”