(CNN Spanish) — The Pope will go to the World Youth Day to be held in 2023 in Lisbon, Portugal, Francis said in an interview with CNN Portugal. But what dad? “I plan to go. The pope is going to go. Either Francisco goes or John XXIV goes, but the pope goes,” he replied. This is not the first time the pope has mentioned his non-existent successor, whom he refers to as John XXIV. In 2021, according to ACI Prensa, the pontiff already winked at the issue when the bishop of Ragusa, in Italy, invited him to visit the city in 2025 when the 75th anniversary of that diocese is celebrated. Francis, according to the report, joked that John XXIV would attend the event. In the CNN Portugal interview, the journalist Maria Joao Avillez told him that everyone hoped that the person who would participate in the day that brings together thousands of young Catholics would be Pope Francis, and he replied: “Let it be what God wants.” A little over a month ago, the pope denied rumors of his resignation that had circulated, stating that he would not be there at that time. “Not now, when he feels that the Lord asks me, yes,” he said in an interview with Univisión. Pope Francis talks about abuse in the Church and in families In the interview, Pope Francis called abuse by members of the Church a “monstrosity” and noted that there are more cases of abuse within families, where he said —these crimes are still “covered up”. “The abuse of men and women of the church, abuse of authority, abuse of power and sexual abuse is a monstrosity,” the pope said, stating that it is “a tragic reality of all times, but also of our times.” “The difference is that now it is known,” journalist Maria Joao Avillez replied, to which Francisco said: “It is known and that is very good. But what is not known, because it is still covered up, is the abuse within the family”. The pope – who since he was elected in 2013 after the resignation of Benedict XVI had to face multiple scandals due to clergy abuse and has taken measures to address this problem – said that he had met with a group from Brazil that works on the issue of abuse and that they informed him that a high percentage of cases, around 42% or 46%, he said, happen in families or in the neighborhood. He pointed out that, according to the statistics that he was given, then there is a percentage in the world of sports and then in schools. And then there is “a percentage that they told me 3% of the abuse is with men and women of the church.” “It’s a little 3%,” he said, remarking that “even if it was just one, it’s a monstrosity.” In the interview taped on August 11, Francis asserted that there is a “culture of abuse” in society, citing pornography as an example. “Ours is an abusive culture. So when we talk about abuse, I would say (you have to) have this vision together.” Secondly, he affirmed, we must “try not to cover things up” and again pointed against families: “In some sectors, like in the family, there is a tendency to cover up.” “And third, let’s take the percentage that falls to us and go for that. I mean, I don’t deny the abuse (…). Even if it was just one, it’s monstrous.” “It’s destroying lives,” he said. Francisco denied that the abuse was linked to celibacy and again took aim at the family, stating that although there is no celibacy there, it also happens. “So it’s just the monstrosity of a church man or woman who is psychologically sick or evil and uses his posture for his personal satisfaction. It’s diabolical,” he opined. “Zero tolerance” What is the Church doing? When asked, Francisco said that after the “explosion in Chicago”, the Church “became aware” and “began to follow the cases of abuse”. In December 2018, the Illinois attorney general charged that the state’s six dioceses had failed to report allegations of sexual abuse against at least 500 priests and clergy. She further said that many of the accusations against priests had not been well investigated or investigated at all. And this had happened even with a policy adopted by the United States Catholic Conference — after a sexual abuse scandal erupted in 2002 — that committed them to promptly report priests accused of abuse to the police, including lay experts in investigations of abuse and to adopt “safe environment” training in their dioceses. After mentioning this background, Francisco insisted that the policy is “zero tolerance.” “A very key thing is zero tolerance. Zero. A priest cannot remain a priest if he is an abuser. He cannot act because he is sick or a criminal. I don’t know. They are usually sick,” the pope said. “And every case of abuse that comes hurts me. It hurts me, but you have to face it,” he emphasized. The pope describes the situation of the war in Ukraine as “tragic” and says that dialogue is difficult Francis said that he has previously spoken with presidents Vladimir Putin and Volodomyr Zelensky. When asked what could be said to them in the midst of a war that has lasted more than six months, the pontiff replied: “I don’t know. I had a dialogue with both of them. They both visited me here. Not now, before. And I always believe that dialogue always goes ahead. Do you know who does not know how to dialogue? Animals. They are pure instinct, “replied the pontiff. Dialogue “is letting go of instinct and listening,” he said, insisting that “it’s hard.” Francis said he does not know when he will go to Ukraine and Russia and that three of his cardinals have been to Kyiv. “I mean, my presence there is strong, isn’t it?” He stated. The pope’s position in the midst of the war has not been without criticism. Recently (on a date after the recording of the interview) Ukraine expressed its disappointment after the pope spoke about the death of Darya Dugina, the daughter of Russian ultra-nationalist arsonist Alexander Dugin. Dugina died after a bomb planted in the car she was driving outside Moscow on August 20, 2022. The Russian Federal Security Service blamed the Ukrainian special services for the murder, a charge Kyiv denies. The previous week the pope had referred to the event stating that “the war is paid by the innocent” and the Government of Ukraine criticized him, saying that he “unfairly” equated the aggressor and the “victim”. After that fact, the Vatican published last Tuesday its strongest words to date about the war in Ukraine “initiated by the Russian Federation”, calling it “morally unjust, unacceptable, barbaric, senseless, disgusting and sacrilegious”. Francisco affirmed in the interview with CNN Portugal that he still cannot go to Eastern Europe because after his trip to Canada – in which he apologized for the abuses of the Church against the indigenous – the restoration of his knee suffered a little and the doctor told him that he could not travel until he healed. The pope has suffered for several months from knee pain, according to Vatican information. In June, in fact, he announced that he had postponed a planned trip to Africa in July for this reason. In the interview with CNN Portugal, the pope stated that, although he cannot go, he is in communication by phone. “I do what I can and I ask all the people to do what they can. Together, something can be done. And I accompany everything I can with my pain and my prayer. But it is a very tragic situation.”