[ad_1]
A lifelong Catholic and religious journalist for many years, Kerry Webber says her recent visit and interview with Pope Francis at the Vatican was “extremely meaningful.”
“I was grateful to be in the presence of such a holy man, but also grateful to have the chance to ask some difficult questions about our church and its place in the world,” said the Springfield native, who had an audience with the pope in late November. “However, perhaps the most surprising thing was how normal it felt to be with him, which had a lot to do with how welcoming and open he was.”
Weber found that international travel interrupted her Thanksgiving planning this year, but since it meant an interview, along with her four America Media colleagues, with Pope Francis, she was “more than happy” to make the trip to joined them from his home in East Longmeadow.
While planning for the interview began over the summer by America Media Vatican correspondent Gerard O’Connell, the interview was scheduled just two days before Thanksgiving.
Weber is executive editor of America, the Jesuit Review of Faith and Culture, published by America Media. In addition to the review’s O’Connell, she was joined in the interview by two Jesuits, Matt Malone, the outgoing editor-in-chief, and Sam Sawyer, the incoming editor-in-chief, as well as Gloria Purvis, who hosts a podcast presented by America Media.
The interview was conducted in Spanish through an interpreter at the Pope’s residence in the Santa Marta Pension in the Vatican. Published online in English, it covers a range of topics.
“I think Francis was speaking to Catholics in the United States in a unique way at this particular moment,” Weber said. “Both our church and our country feel very divided at times, and I think his emphasis on the fact that ‘polarization is not Catholic’ really makes us rethink how and why we divide. He very clearly wants us to follow the beatitudes and works of mercy before any political leader.”
The pope, who turned 86 on December 17, will mark the 10th year of his pontificate in March.
Weber said some of Francis’ longer answers during the interview included his diplomatic approach to the war in Ukraine; his distaste in the Roman Catholic Church for what he saw as issues such as abortion becoming “more political than pastoral” and his belief that the church, in its punishment of those within it who sexually abused children, was seen as separate from those abusers and that there is “less transparency” surrounding such allegations of abuse involving a bishop.
His reference to polarization being “un-Catholic” and in opposition to the “Catholic spirit” that “harmonizes opposing differences” came in response to a question related to his 2015 speech to the US Congress. In that address, the Pope called for a “renewed spirit of fraternity and solidarity” and noted the lack of such renewal both in the church and in this country.
Weber, who covered the papal visit and whose writings on the spirituality of the church include the book “Mercy in the City: How to Feed the Hungry, Water the Thirsty, Visit the Prisoner and Keep Our Day Jobs,” said she felt the pope meant that part of this interview also addressed criticisms of his writings on capitalism that are of particular interest to US Catholics.
In preparing the interview, Weber said her team of editors and staff “threw out tons of ideas and then ended up narrowing down the topics and refining the questions. When we got to Rome, we reconvened to decide how to prioritize the questions and who should ask what. We expected to have about an hour with the Holy Father, but he very kindly stayed with us for almost two hours.
Kerry Weber, a Springfield native and executive editor of America, Jesuit Review, second from left, talks with Pope Francis at his residence in Santa Marta, with, from left, Gerard O’Connell, Vatican correspondent for America, Matt Malone, a Jesuit and former editor Americas CEO, Gloria Purvis, host of The Gloria Purvis Podcast, and Sam Sawyer, Jesuit and Americas Editor-in-Chief. The pope presented her and others with a copy of his book, Let’s Dream: The Road to a Better Future. Weber now lives in East Longmeadow.Sent by a third party
The interview began by asking Francis why he seems in his ministry “so peaceful and happy” to many people, to which he replied: “God makes me happy (with) the assurance that one does not walk alone.”
One of Weber’s questions for Francis referred to her 2021 survey of American Catholics, which showed that only a small percentage of them sought moral guidance from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. She said Pope Francis responded that the individual bishops were more important than the conference, which had been created over time.
“In the United States, I think it’s very easy for Catholics in the pews to think of the bishops as a kind of anonymous group that issues statements, or maybe just as a political force,” Weber said. “But I think what Pope Francis was saying is that prioritizing this version of the bishops makes it too easy to forget that they are human too. And that any relationship that means anything requires seeing the person in front of us. And I think he was saying that bishops’ first priority should be their congregation, that they are most effective when they are motivated by deep, holy relationships with the people in their diocese or archdiocese.”
She also asked Francis, who maintains the church’s adherence to an all-male priesthood, to respond to the call some women feel to the priesthood.
“The purpose of my question was to ask Pope Francis for a pastoral response to the pain felt by women who are hurt by the church’s teaching that women cannot be ordained to the priesthood,” Weber said. “His response offered praise for the many ways women are already serving in the church, and I believe he truly admires many of the skills and talents of the women he knows pastorally and professionally.”
But, she noted, the pope’s response “was anchored in the intellectual and theological teachings of the church, and I hoped that he would address the personal, not the ‘why’ or the ‘why not,’ but the question of what one does with pain , caused by church teaching.
Weber said the interview elicited a “solid reaction” from readers of her review, as well as others. A scholar of biblical theology, writing Dec. 12 in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, in response to the pope’s response to Weber’s question about the ordination of women priests, suggested that the pope “struggles to free himself from the patriarchal vision.” of a theology around women that is no longer authentic.
“The secular press focused,” Weber said, “on his comments about the war in Ukraine, (while) some of the Catholic press focused on his comments about bishops or women. But most of our readers, at least the ones I’ve heard from, have focused on his humanity. They are struck by his openness, honest accessibility, vulnerability, even if they disagree with some of what he has to say.
Weber, like his two siblings, is a graduate of the former Springfield Cathedral High School and Providence College, both Catholic institutions. She also holds a master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of Journalism.
The daughter of John and Peggy Weber, she accompanied her mother, also an award-winning Catholic author and now retired journalist for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, on diocesan work and later on assignments for the diocesan newspaper and television broadcast.
“I’ve been a Catholic all my life and I’ve worked in the Catholic press, in some capacity, since I was 16 years old, so this conversation with Pope Francis was extremely meaningful to me both personally and professionally,” Weber said.
Weber has worked since 2009 for America, which was founded in 1909 by the Jesuits, a religious order of men also known as the Society of Jesus and whose members include Francis, the first Jesuit elected to the papacy.
Weber likes that her work as a Catholic journalist “allows me to cover such a variety of topics,” she said. “Covering faith is always interesting because everything can be filtered through the lens of faith, so there’s always a wide range of topics to write or read about.”
Weber, with her husband and three young children, returned to Western Massachusetts during the pandemic from New Jersey, where she had traveled to the examination’s headquarters in New York.
She noted that at the end of the interview with Francis, she had to communicate in a more informal way with him, which led to a special conclusion.
“My 6-year-old wanted to know what the pope’s favorite animal was,” Weber said. “So, after the interview, I asked him this question. He looked a little surprised but laughed and said it was a combination of all the animals, which made me laugh too.
Related Content:
[ad_2]
Source link