“There is an urgent need for a total ceasefire in Gaza. We don’t understand or pretend we don’t see that we are on the edge of the abyss,” he said in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Stampa. Pope Francis. “The conflict is expanding dramatically. There was the Oslo agreement, with the solution of the two states. As long as this agreement is not implemented, real peace will be a distant goal,” he added.

Francis “is afraid, above all, of her escalation of military confrontation” but, at the same time, “he also has a little hope, because secret meetings are being held, in an attempt to reach an agreement”.

With reference to the criticism he received for his decision to have Catholic priests give their blessing to same-sex couples, the pontiff clarified that “the Gospel says that all should be blessed”, under the condition, of course, “that there is good will, with clear instructions for a Christian life”. Francis also emphasized that “people are blessed, not the relationship.”

According to the pontiff, those who protest by raising their voices “belong to small ideological groups” while he considers that, for reasons of cultural tradition, “the position of African bishops is a special case”.

“Inside the Catholic Church, there have always been small groups that raised concerns with a schismatic tone. We have to let them have their say and to look ahead“, concluded the Argentine pope.