Jesus 'slaps me upside the head when I make a mistake,' Pope said in 2021 interview (Vatican News)

The Vatican has released the unedited text and video of a 2021 interview in which Noel Díaz, from the California-based El Sembrador Nueva Evangelización network, asked Pope Francis about Scripture passages on St. Peter the Apostle.

“When Jesus anoints him bishop, priest, He anoints him because he is a shepherd,” Pope Francis said. “He doesn’t anoint him to promote him, in order for him to be the head of an office. He doesn’t anoint him to organize the country politically. No. He anoints him to be a pastor.”

The Pope also said:

To the Popes, too, if we ever stray from his plan of salvation, Jesus says, “That’s not my way, that’s Satan’s way.” Why? Because we are sinners and we can go astray. History shows us some popes who preferred a different path, but never, never made a mistake in the faith. That’s true: Never, even if they led a worldly life.

But when [Peter] errs in the faith, He says: “No, that is of Satan! The path is the Cross.” That is, my confidence is in the word of Jesus who gives me firmness when He chooses me and who slaps me upside the head when I make a mistake.