Interview with card. Angelo Comastri

by Francesco Marruncheddu

Your Eminence, the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy has recently concluded. How do you evaluate this event, starting right here, from St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, of which you are Archpriest?

The Jubilee of Mercy was initially greeted with surprise because the Pope kept the intuition and inspiration within himself. And when he announced it, evidently, there was a moment of almost suspense, because no one was expecting this unexpected gift. Then, however, there was immediately an opening of the heart and, I would say, also a kind of harmony with the intuition of the Holy Father, because the theme of mercy is a theme that fascinates, a theme that encourages.

What encourages you most, in your opinion?

Knowing that God is mercy, that God is always ready to forgive, that God is happy to forgive, as Jesus tells us in the parable of the prodigal son: knowing this gives great hope for our era, which is full of fears, discouragements, of wounds. Humanity is very wounded. This is why the theme of mercy has done so much good and given courage to so many people.

In this Holy Year there was the canonization of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, an icon of mercy for our times. The right figure for a Jubilee of this type. And a saint closely linked to her and to her life, her Eminence...

Yes, we can say that Mother Teresa is the very icon of mercy of the twentieth century. A woman who was fascinated by the theme of love, the love that reaches everyone, even the least. And precisely because she reaches the last, she does not exclude anyone. We can say of Mother Teresa that she revealed God by living charity completely. 

Do you have a specific memory about it?

There is an episode that I can say is the symbol of Mother Teresa's life: in the early days when the House of the Immaculate Heart was opened in Calcutta, inaugurated on 22 August 1952, a poor woman was brought in, collected in an open sewer open, as there are still many in Calcutta today. The woman was a leper, and had been abandoned by her children, thrown away like garbage by her own children. She was taken to the House of the Immaculate Heart and it was seen that her foot was gnawed by mice because she was a leper, and lepers have no sensation in the peripheral parts. Well Mother Teresa wanted to personally look after this woman. But this woman blasphemed, cursed, cursed her children, Mother Teresa herself said, and her mother told her: "don't curse your children, a mother must always bless". «But they abandoned me!». Mother Teresa caressed her and cleaned her. At a certain point the woman asked her mother: "Why do you do this?". And she replied: "I do this because I love you!". «How do you love me, who taught you that?». “My God taught me that!” «Does your God teach these things? And what is the name of your God?”. Mother Teresa replies: "my God is called love". The amazed woman then exclaims: «what good news you gave me! God is love and I didn't know it" and the woman died after a few moments, repeating that news: "God is love and I didn't know it". 

It is an episode that moves us and reveals to us the profound faith and humanity of Saint Mother Teresa. 

Mother Teresa concluded by believing that, when this woman presented herself before the Lord, she already knew the great mystery of God and perhaps she said to the Lord: look, a poor nun had already told me that you are love! The mother believed that this is the mission of us Christians: to announce with our lives that God is love. The Jubilee of Mercy did this in an extraordinary way, and for this reason we can say that the canonization of Mother Teresa was the symbolic event of this Jubilee.

You are the Pope's Vicar for the Vatican City State. At this moment two popes coexist in the Vatican: the reigning one, Francis, and the emeritus one, Benedict XVI. it is certainly a new, unprecedented, unprecedented coexistence. How is this situation perceived here in the Vatican?

There is no difficulty, Pope Benedict has left the helm physically, but not with his heart, and certainly with prayer, he watches over Francis' steps. Furthermore, there is great affection and mutual respect between the two which is truly an example for everyone.

In recent weeks the Dubia of the four cardinals, made public, have triggered an unpleasant media brawl towards the Holy Father...

Of course, it would have been better not to publish these questions, there's no doubt. Now we need to see, because expressing the desire to have more clarity about a document is certainly a legitimate desire. However, it must be done in the right way. Now let's see if we can give an authoritative interpretation to the exhortation, to what is the will of the Holy Father.