(CRUX).
Almost anyone who’s ever met Pope Francis in person has heard some version of his standard laugh line. It generally goes like this: When the visitor assures the pope that he or she is praying for him, the pontiff, with a twinkle in his eye, will ask a simple question. Pro, o contra?
That is, are you praying for me or against me? It’s a jocular way of acknowledging that Francis understands he tends to be a lightning rod, stirring both passion and outrage. On Friday, however, the pontiff added a new twist to his standard trope, indirectly, and still with tongue in cheek, suggesting that at least some of those contra prayers may be coming from inside the Vatican itself. The aside came on Friday, when Pope Francis took a brief car ride down the Via della Conciliazione in order to address a conference on efforts to promote Italy’s historically low birth rate. At the end of his speech, the pontiff issued his standard invitation to “not forget to pray for me,” adding the usual, “please, pray in favor and not against!” Unbidden, the pope than launched into an extemporaneous anecdote after handing his prepared text to an aide.