A message from the Bishop of Rome

Returning from his 21st Apostolic Journey, which took place in Bangladesh and Myanmar, the Pope engaged in the traditional airborne press conference.

The purpose of his trip was to bring to these two Asian countries, one officially Muslim, the other mainly Buddhist, a message of reconciliation, forgiveness and peace.

[Etienne Loraillère, «KTO» (French Catholic Television)]: Some see interreligious dialogue and evangelization as two opposing terms. During this journey, you spoke of dialogue for peacebuilding. But what is your priority: evangelization or a dialogue for peace?

Pope Francis
Thank you. A first distinction: evangelizing is not proselytizing. The Church grows not through proselytizing but through attraction, that is, through witness. Pope Benedict XVI said this. What is evangelization? It is living the Gospel; it is witnessing to how one lives the Gospel: witnessing to the Beatitudes, witnessing to Matthew 25, witnessing to the Good Samaritan, witnessing to forgiveness seventy times seven. And in this witnessing, the Holy Spirit works and there are conversions. But we are not very enthusiastic about bringing about conversions straight away. If they come, they wait: you speak ..., your tradition…, you make sure that a conversion is the response to something that the Holy Spirit has moved in my heart before the testimony of a Christian. During the lunch I had with the young people on the Youth Day in Krakow – 15 or so young people from all over the world – one young man asked me this question: “What should I say to a university classmate, a friend, a good person, but who is atheist? What should I tell him in order to change him, to convert him? This was the response: “The last thing you should do is to say something. You live your Gospel, and if he asks you why you do this, you can explain to him why you do so. Let the Holy Spirit attract him”. This is the power of the meekness of the Holy Spirit in conversions. We are witnesses to the Spirit, witnesses to the Gospel. ‘Witness’ is a word that, in Greek, means ‘martyr’: everyday martyrdom, also the martyrdom of blood, when it happens. Your question: what is the priority, peace or conversion? But, when you live with witness and respect, you make peace. Peace begins to be broken in this field when proselytism begins, and there are many types of proselytism, but this is not evangelical. I don’t know if I’ve answered.

(From the press conference, December 2nd, 2017)