Pope-Critic Mario Palmaro Received Call From Pope Francis -- "It is important, to receive criticism."

(Rome) For several days the news has circulated that Pope Francis had called a traditional Catholic who is also one of his harshest critics. The name of the Catholic was not initially announced, so there were doubts as to its authenticity. The daily newspaper Libero confirmed the call through an interview with the critically ill legal philosopher Mario Palmaro.

In the interview published today, Palmaro is said to have been, "surprised, amazed and moved, above all," from the phone call from Pope Francis. Mario Palmaro wrote together with journalist Alessandro Gnocchi, intellectually high-value, but also the toughest, criticism of the pontificate of Pope Francis. The essay of the two Catholic journalists were published in the daily newspaper Il Foglio.

Pope Francis called Palmaro on 1 November on the feast of All Saints. The Pope and the legal philosopher agreed not to disclose the private conversation. But the news appeared in mid-November on the Internet without naming the callee and so other journalists began to be interested. In an interview with Libero, Palmaro has now said: "If it were up to me and Alessandro Gnocchi, this would never gotten into the public. For this reason alone, because the Pope had no intention to make this public, either the gesture or the content of our conversation," he said.

The Sickness and the Criticism, the Pope is Grateful

"Pope Francis said to me,  to be near to me, that he had learned of my health situation and my serious illness. And he expressed his his deep empathy very clearly, an interest in my person as such, regardless of the ideas and opinions, as I'm going through a time of trial and suffering. "

"For me, as a Catholic, what I experienced one of the most beautiful experiences of my life. I also expressed my unconditional loyalty to the Pope, as a son of the Church. However, I also saw the duty to recall to the Pope that I had expressed together with Alessandro Gnocchi, very accurate criticism of his actions. The Pope almost did not allow me to finish the sentence and said he had understood that this criticism was made out of love and how important it is for him to get those."

Conscience and Loyalty

The intention of the Catholic Pope's critics has always been, that their criticism is "put forward as alert and lucid with regard to the contents of Catholic doctrine, but never to put their loyalty to the Pope as such into question... And I humbly remind you that the deletion of the Scalfari interviews of Pope Francis can assume from the Vatican side, that there was something wrong with the interview, as we noted, among other things." Whether now, the position of the critics will change somewhat in the position? No, replies Mario Palmaro, "we will go on the way we have always gone, we follow our conscience, always connected to the Pope and the Church in faithfulness, but we will continue on our way, just because of this loyalty and love."

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
 Image: Corrispondenza Romana / Riscossa Cristiana (assembly)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

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