Judas was not so bad says Pope Francis in homily

Pope Francis says Judas Iscariot was not the one who sinned the most and was definitely not the only sinner among the Twelve Apostles, but he was the one who “closed himself to love.”

Speaking during his daily morning mass at the Vatican the Pope said Jesus built the Church on the Apostles, “all of them sinners.”

“As St. Paul says, this Church is built on the foundations of the Apostles; he chose 12 of them. All of them sinners,” the Pope said in his homily.

“Judas was not the one who sinned the most: I don’t know who sinned the most...Judas, poor man, is the one who closed himself to love and that is why he became a traitor. And they all ran away during the difficult time of the Passion and left Jesus alone. They are all sinners.”

The pope said Jesus wanted everyone to be part of the church he created and everyone to have the “rights of a citizen” with their roots in the Church.

Francis said Judas was complex. "Let us think of that moment with the Magdalene, when she washed the feet of Jesus with nard, which was so expensive.” It is a religious moment, a moment of gratitude, a moment of love. And he [Judas] stands apart and criticizes her bitterly: 'But...this could be used for the poor!.' This is the first reference that I personally found in the Gospel of poverty as an ideology. The ideologue does not know what love is, because they do not know how to gift themselves."

Francis stated that Judas stood apart and that those who "isolate their conscience in selfishness," in the end "lose." This is how Judas ended up, the Pope said, he "was an idolater, attached to money."