Editor’s note: The historic interview with Pope Francis (Am. 9/30) has generated a great deal of dialogue in the church and in society at large. We asked several writers to offer their reactions to the pope’s words. Selections from these responses are printed below. The full versions of

Learning lessons from history, there two mistakes to avoid. The first is ignorance of the past; the second, supposing that it was inevitable.

“It is not a figure of speech, a literary genre. I am a sinner.”

Parables are meant to change our perspective, and that is no small thing. 

What "I am a sinner" tells us about who Pope Francis is.

My grandfather never knew if the aid packages he sent back to Russia reached his brothers.  He died in Kansas, never seeing any of them again.