Pope Francis has affirmed the church will never accept aborting an unborn baby as a solution to any problem. In an interview with America magazine published Monday, Francis acknowledged that abortion is a divisive issue, even within the Catholic Church. “The more polarization there is, the more one loses the Catholic spirit and falls into a sectarian spirit. What is Catholic is not either-or, but is both-and, combining differences,” he said. When asked if the Church’s stance on the sanctity of life is too political, he responded that it should never be looked at as political issue and that this causes polarization.

He said the problem with polarization “arises when this reality of killing a human being is transformed into a political question, or when a pastor of the church uses political categories.”

“When I see a problem like this one … become strongly, intensely political, there is a failure of pastoral care in approaching this problem. We cannot deal with (abortion) as if it is only a civil matter,” Pope Francis continued.

According to the Catholic News Agency:

Pope Francis did not explain how he thought a bishop or priest could explain church teaching in a way that was pastoral but not political and he declined to give an opinion on whether the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops should present the fight against abortion as its preeminent concern.

“This is a problem the bishops’ conference has to resolve within itself. What interests me is the relationship of the bishop with the people, which is sacramental,” he said. “The sacramental part of the pastoral ministry is in the relationship between the pastor and the people of God, between the bishop and his people. And this cannot be delegated to the bishops’ conference.”

“Jesus did not create bishops’ conferences,” the pope said. “Jesus created bishops, and each bishop is pastor of his people.”

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