Vatican City, Oct 22, 2016 / 02:53 am
Dialogue is a key element of mercy, Pope Francis said Saturday, explaining that when we interrupt others in order to push our own opinions without truly listening, we risk ruining relationships.
Speaking to pilgrims in St. Peter's Square Oct. 22, the Pope pointed to "a very important aspect of mercy, which is precisely dialogue."
"We don't dialogue when we don't listen well or when we tend to interrupt the other in order to prove that we are right," he said, noting that many times when we are listening to someone, "we stop them and say 'it's not like this!'"
By not letting people finish explaining what they want to say, "this impedes dialogue, this is aggression," he said, adding that "if I don't let others say everything they have in their heart, and if I start to scream – and today there is a lot of screaming – this relationship between us won't have a good ending."