I think it needs to be said about that 2019 original reporting that the journalist referenced there, Dr. Eugenio Scalfari , 95, of la Repubblica, is an atheist. And the excerpt causing the uproar is devoid of context.
Also, Dr. Eugenio Scalfari was known to not take notes when conducting interviews. And, he had a history of misquoting Pope Francis before this.
Here is a part of a letter from Francis to Scalfari six years prior in 2013.
" The Christian faith professes that Jesus is the Son of God who came to give his life to open the way of love to all people. Thus you are correct, Dr. Scalfari, when you recognize that the Christian faith hinges on the incarnation of the Son of God. Tertullian wrote “caro cardo salutis”, the flesh (of Christ) is the fulcrum of salvation. Because the incarnation, the Son of God coming in our flesh and sharing the joys and sorrows, the successes and failures of our life, even to crying out on the Cross, experiencing all things with love and fidelity to Abba, testifies to the astonishing love of God for all people, and to the inestimable worth that he sees in them. On account of this, each one of us is called to make Christ’s gaze and love his own, and to enter into his way of being, of thinking and of acting. This is what faith is, with all its expressions as they are accurately employed in the Encyclical. * * * Returning to the editorial of 7 July, you ask me furthermore how to understand the unique identity of the Christian faith in as much as it centres on the incarnation of the Son of God, with respect to other faiths which rest on the absolute transcendence of God. The uniqueness lies, I would say, in the fact that the faith makes us share, through Jesus, in the relationship he has with God who is Abba, and from this perspective, in the relationship of love which he has with all men and women, enemies included. In other words, the sonship of Jesus, as presented by the Christian faith, is not revealed so as to emphasize an insurmountable separation between Jesus and everyone else; rather, it is revealed to tell us that in him, we are all called to be children in the one Father and so brothers and sisters to one another. The uniqueness of Jesus has to do with communication, not exclusion."
Letter link
https://www.vatican.va/content/fran...papa-francesco_20130911_eugenio-scalfari.html