By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY — For those who want even more than what our story yesterday contained, here are a few additional outtakes from Pope Francis’ inflight news conference yesterday:
– On China and being the first pope to receive permission to fly through Chinese airspace:
He said that on the flight to South Korea Aug. 13, “when we were about to enter Chinese airspace, I was in the cockpit with the pilots and one of them showed me the flight log and said, ‘In 10 minutes we will enter Chinese airspace; we must ask authorization. … We always ask, it’s normal to ask every country.’ And I heard how they request authorization, and the response. I witnessed that. And the pilot said, ‘Now we’ll send the telegram,’ but I don’t know how they did that.”
Pope Francis answers questions Aug. 18 during the flight from Seoul, South Korea, back to Rome. (CNS/Paul Haring)
– On his planned trip to Albania Sept. 21:
“Why am I going to Albania? For two reasons. First, because they have been able to form a government — think about the Balkans — they have a government of national unity made up of Muslims, Orthodox (and) Catholics with an interreligious council that helps a lot and is balanced. This is going well, it’s harmonious. The presence of the pope will say to the people, ‘See, you can work together!’ and I thought it would be a real help for that noble people. And another thing: If you think about the history of Albania, religiously it was the only communist country that enshrined atheism in its constitution. If you went to Mass, it was unconstitutional. And one of the ministries told me that — I want to be precise with the figures — 1,820 churches, Orthodox and Catholic, were destroyed in that period. And other churches were (transformed) into cinemas, theaters, dance halls. I felt like I should go. It’s close, the trip can be done in a day.”
– On his relationship with retired Pope Benedict XVI:
“Before leaving I went to visit him. And two weeks earlier he had sent me an interesting text and asked my opinion about it.”
The pope said he and his retired predecessor have “a normal relationship,” similar to the relationship between a diocesan bishop and the diocese’s retired bishop. “I think that having a pope emeritus will not be an (Read More)
Source: http://cnsblog.wordpress.com/2014/08/19/more-from-pope-francis-inflight-news-conference/