MANILA, Philippines — Pope Francis began his visit to Asia’s largest Catholic nation Thursday with a provocative statement about one of Europe’s largest Catholic nations: Referring to the Paris attacks, Francis said there are limits to freedom of expression, especially when it insults or ridicules someone’s faith.
Francis made the comments to reporters en route to the Philippines, where hundreds of thousands of people lined Manila’s streets to cheer him as he arrived from Sri Lanka for the second and final leg of his Asian tour.
Francis said his visit would focus on the plight of the poor, the exploited and victims of injustice — themes sure to resonate in a nation where poverty afflicts nearly a quarter of its 100 million people.
Before touching down, Francis weighed in on the debate raging in much of the world after the massacre by Islamic extremists against the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo and subsequent attack on a kosher supermarket, that left 17 people and the three gunmen dead.
Francis defended freedom of speech as a fundamental right, and even a duty to speak out for the common good. But he said there were limits to free speech, especially when confronting another equally fundamental human right: the freedom of religion.
By way of example, he referred to Alberto Gasbarri, who organizes papal trips and was standing by his side aboard the papal plane.
“If my good friend Dr. Gasbarri says a curse word against my mother, he can expect a punch,” Francis said jokingly, throwing a pretend punch his way. “It’s normal. You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others.”
He by no means said the violent attack on Charlie Hebdo was justified. Quite the opposite, he said such horrific violence in God’s name couldn’t be justified and was an “aberration.” But he said a reaction of some kind was to be expected.
As he emerged from his plane, church bells rang out across the country and hundreds of children danced and waved small Philippine and Vatican flags. A gust of wind blew off his papal cap. Francis grabbed futilely for it then smiled and descended the stairs from the aircraft to be greeted by President Benigno Aquino III.
The pontiff revealed his priorities as he arrived, saying the “central nut of the message will be the poor, the poor who want to go forward, the poor who suffered from Typhoon Haiyan and are continuing to suffer the consequences.”
Powerful Typhoon Haiyan left more than 7,300 dead and missing and leveled entire villages in the central Philippines in 2013.
He said he also had in mind the poor who “face so many injustices — social, spiritual, existential.”
