I didn't realize after announcing that my pastor's column this week would be on the interview of Pope Francis by Norah O'Donnell of CBS News both on "Sixty Minutes" and an hour-long program a week ago, how challenging it would be to do it. There's much that could be said about various aspects of the interview in addition to what was asked, and how the pope responded. I'm just guessing that the pope and/or his aides had little if any input as to what subjects would be brought up and perhaps not a "heads-up" on the questions themselves. It was the agenda of the executives of CBS that might have dictated the topics and questions as it seemed to me to be slanted in a certain way. I'm thinking particularly about the topics of migration and climate control. I thought the pope's responses were not specific about a certain country, and brought out the right of people to migrate, especially in situations of violence and poverty and the call of the Gospel to welcome migrants in a Christ-like way. Of course, there are the rights of countries for a variety of reasons to have conditions and even limits on immigration which have been acknowledged by our American bishops, which the pope either didn't comment on OR the CBS executives did not include it for the viewers to see. This, again, can make any interview slanted and potentially biased when not sharing everything that was said by the one being interviewed. On climate control, the pope admitted that we are past the point of no return as far as man-made actions that have affected and are affecting such things as the warming of the planet's temperatures. The pope did not hold back in saying that it is foolish to not acknowledge the reality of the situation and its negative and long-term bad effects on our planet. To say it is the highly industrialized countries that are practically doing the most damage to the atmosphere and climate is speaking a truth that many (especially some who live in such countries) do not want to acknowledge or even hear. I applaud the pope's responses to some of the questions he was asked as he used the platform to speak on something much broader than was asked, including the issue of the abuse of children. While reiterating the Church's no-tolerance approach to credible instances of clergy abuse (including the full force of the law and Church law which leads to a priest being defrocked as a priest), he also spoke of the terrible scourge in our society in general where abuse is happening within families and by other people in positions of authority and trust like teachers and coaches who are harming our children. Pope Francis holding the first International Day of Children at the Vatican brought out the importance of children in our society which means not only protecting them from harm, but also respecting what they (and the elderly) have to offer to us! More on the Pope's interview in next week's column.