During an interview with the Argentine daily La Nacion published on Sunday, Pope Francis spoke on a variety of topics, including the new appointment of Cardinal Raymond Burke which some considered to be a demotion.

The Catholic News Agency is reporting that Pope Francis addressed the appointment of Cardinal Raymond Burke as Patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta after having served for the traditional six years as prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura.

A variety of news sources reported on this new assignment as a demotion attributable to Cardinal Burke's outspoken support of the Church's moral teachings. Some suggested that because the announcement of his new position was made after the Synod on the Family that this was a kind of punishment for the comments he made during the sessions in support of traditional Church teaching.

Pope Francis dismissed this speculation, saying that the announcement about Cardinal Burke was made after the synod in order to enable the cardinal to participate in the event, something he would not have been able to do in the new position.

According to Francis, Cardinal Burke had approached him earlier in the year to inquire about his position as prefect of the Signatura which had not yet been confirmed. As of this year, Cardinal Burke had served six years as prefect, which is the customary time spent in the job before a new prefect is appointed.

Francis asked the Cardinal to give him more time in order to allow feedback from the Council of Nine cardinals who were assisting him in Church reform.

“I told him nothing had been done about it yet and that it was being considered. After that the issue of the Order of Malta cropped up and we needed a smart American who would know how to get around and I thought of him for that position,” the Pope said.

When the offer was made, “he thanked me in very good terms and accepted my offer," Francis said. "I even think he liked it. Because he is a man that gets around a lot, he does a lot of traveling and would surely be busy there. It is therefore not true that I removed him because of how he had behaved in the synod.”

When asked how he feels about the differing opinions some are voicing about the changes he has proposed in the last 21 months, he was not at all concerned.

Facing resistance isn’t something to be afraid of, he said, because “to me, resistance means different points of view, not something dirty.”

He went on to say that at the time he was elected Pope, he had been planning to retire, but that all changed when he suddenly found himself moving to the Vatican and having to start all over again in a place where everything was new to him.

“From the start I said to myself: ‘Jorge, don't change, just keep on being yourself, because to change at your age would be to make a fool of yourself'," he told La Nacion.

“That´s why I've always kept on doing what I used to do in Buenos Aires. Perhaps even making my old mistakes. But I prefer it like this, to be myself.”

© All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace®  http://www.womenofgrace.com