• Home
  • Diocese
  • Bishop Burns
  • Synod
  • Columnists
  • Revista Catolica
  • Vatican
  • Subscribe
The Texas Catholic
The Texas Catholic

Dallas, Texas

Today is Monday, March 27, 2023
  • Home
  • Diocese
  • Bishop Burns
  • Synod
  • Columnists
  • Revista Catolica
  • Vatican
  • Subscribe
  • Follow
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Linkedin
    • Instagram
Home
Pope Francis

True love leads to freedom, not possessiveness, pope says

Friday, December 9, 2022

Pope Francis is pictured through lights on the Christmas tree during his general audience in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican Dec. 7, 2022. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — True love of God or love of another person should lead to a sense of freedom, not to a need to possess or control, Pope Francis said.

“Possessiveness is the enemy of goodness and kills affection — pay attention to this,” the pope told people at his weekly general audience Dec. 7.

Cases of domestic violence, which occur too often, he said, “almost always arise from the claim to possess the affection of the other, from the search for absolute security that kills freedom and stifles life, making it hell.”

Continuing his series of audience talks about spiritual discernment, Pope Francis said that what one feels and notices after making a decision also is part of the process.

And a “good sign” that a decision was right, he said, “is the fact of remaining free with regard to what has been decided, being willing to question it, even to give it up in the face of possible contradictions” and asking what the Lord was trying to teach through the experience.

God does not want to deprive people of something they want or hold dear, the pope said, but he does want people to live “with freedom, without attachment. Only God knows what is truly good for us.”

“We can only love in freedom, which is why the Lord created us free, free even to say no to him,” Pope Francis said. “Offering him what we hold most dear is in our best interest, enabling us to live it in the best possible way and in truth, as a gift he has given us, as a sign of his gratuitous goodness, knowing that our lives, as well as the whole of history, are in his benevolent hands.”

Explaining that when one makes good choices it benefits every area of one’s life with a greater sense of peace and harmony, the pope said the spiritual life is “circular.”

He used the example of deciding to pray an extra half hour a day. The goodness of that decision will be seen in how other parts of one’s day improve, bringing more serenity, less anxiety and “even relations with some difficult people become smoother.”

  • Tags
  • Pope Francis
  • Vatican
Facebook Twitter Google+ LinkedIn Pinterest
Next article The Gift of Music virtual Christmas Concert premieres Dec. 24
Previous article Archbishop Gomez: Virgin of Guadalupe 'leads us to Jesus,' who shows way to peace

Related Posts

Confession is 'encounter of love' that fights evil, pope tells priests Pope Francis
Friday, March 24, 2023

Confession is 'encounter of love' that fights evil, pope tells priests

Pope asks Catholics to renew consecration of world to Mary every March 25 Pope Francis
Wednesday, March 22, 2023

Pope asks Catholics to renew consecration of world to Mary every March 25

To be an apostle is to serve, not move up church's hierarchy, pope says Pope Francis
Wednesday, March 15, 2023

To be an apostle is to serve, not move up church's hierarchy, pope says

Texas Catholic Classics

A look at the five Dallas law enforcement officers who gave their lives while protecting citizens during a mass shooting in downtown Dallas in July 2016.

 

How a child with special needs inspired a high school volleyball team, community and a family who heeded God’s call to protect life.

 

After a young runner collapsed at a Dallas marathon, grace and providence unfolded for those involved in the valiant effort to help her.

   

In the summer of 2016, 50 students and 25 chaperones from Dallas Catholic high schools traveled to Nicaragua for a 10-day mission trip.

 

Early on a November morning, Kenndrick Mendieta bounded from the gym at Cristo Rey Dallas College Prep toward the campus’ athletic fields as clouds lifted on a fresh new day.

 

Subscribe

Get the award-winning Texas Catholic delivered to your door. Use the menu below to subscribe now.


Subscription length




 

Photo Gallery

Click here to find your favorite Texas Catholic photographs.

The Texas Catholic Newspaper

Catholic Diocese of Dallas
Michael Gresham, Editor

3725 Blackburn Street
Dallas, Texas 75219
(214) 379-2800

Our Affiliated Sites

Texas Catholic Youth

Revista Católica

Legal and Other

Contact us

Terms of service

Privacy policy

Site map

Site powered by TexasCatholicMedia

© 2013-2019 The Texas Catholic Publishing Company. All rights reserved.