Theology of Pope Francis#Clericalism

Francis was described as being in close continuity with the Second Vatican Council of Catholic bishops (1962–1965) that strove to read the "signs of the times" and address new questions that had challenged the Catholic Church in the mid-twentieth century, such as its appeal to non-Western cultures."The monopoly exercised by neo-Thomists in the church collapsed" and Christianity increased its appeal to non-Western cultures.{{Cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Thomism|title=Thomism {{!}} theology|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=2017-09-26|language=en}} It has been suggested that the pontificate of Pope Francis will be looked upon as the "decisive moment in the history of the church in which the full force of the Second Vatican Council's reformist vision was finally realized".{{rp|178}} Specifically, Francis returned to the Vatican II theme of ressourcement, looking back beyond the Catholic philosophical tradition that had originated with Thomas Aquinas seven centuries before{{Cite web|url=https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/reality-greater-ideas|title='The Mind of Pope Francis' {{!}} Commonweal Magazine|website=commonwealmagazine.org|date=19 March 2019 |access-date=2019-09-24}} and looking toward original sources in the New Testament.{{rp|54}}

In contrast to Pope John Paul II (1978–2005) who emphasized continuity with the past in Vatican II's teachings,{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b-NND2SMQswC&q=pope+john+paul%2C+discontinuity&pg=PA207 |title=The Moral Theology of Pope John Paul II |last=Curran |first=Charles E. |date=2005-01-06 |publisher=Georgetown University Press |isbn=1-58901-451-0 |page=207 |language=en}}{{Cite news |url=https://www.crisismagazine.com/2013/how-john-paul-ii-restored-liturgical-sanity |title=How John Paul II Restored Liturgical Sanity - Crisis Magazine |date=2013-07-08 |work=Crisis Magazine |access-date=2018-05-17 |language=en-US}} Francis' words and actions have been noted for their emphasis on Jesus himself and on mercy: a "church that is poor and for the poor", "disposal of the baroque trappings" in liturgical celebrations, and revision of the institutional aspects of the church.{{rp|32–33}}

From his first gesture since elected Pope, calling himself simply Bishop of Rome,{{Cite web |last=McElwee |first=Joshua J. |date=23 May 2013 |title=Pope Francis officially de-emphasizes papal titles |url=https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/francis-chronicles/pope-francis-officially-de-emphasizes-papal-titles |website=National Catholic Reporter |language=en}} Francis connected with the thrust of the council away from "legalism, triumphalism, and clericalism".{{Cite web |last=Loxterkamp |first=David |date=3 October 2005 |title=A Mutual Presence |url=https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/mutual-presence |website=Commonweal}} Not only did he appoint more cardinals from the southern hemisphere, but he also made greater use of church synods{{Cite web |last=Faggioli |first=Massimo |date=26 December 2018 |title=Pope Francis' struggle to bring forth a synodal Church- La Croix International |url=https://international.la-croix.com/news/pope-francis-struggle-to-bring-forth-a-synodal-church/8784 |website=La Croix}}{{Cite web |last=O' Loughlin |first=Michael |date=12 January 2017 |title=How Pope Francis is changing the Catholic Church |url=https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/01/12/how-pope-francis-changing-catholic-church |website=America |language=en}} and instituted a more collegial manner of governance by constituting a Council of Cardinal Advisers from throughout the world to assist him.{{Cite web |date=31 March 2014 |title=Pope Francis - Fortune ranks the World's 50 Greatest Leaders |url=https://money.cnn.com/gallery/leadership/2014/03/20/worlds-best-leaders.fortune |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140331010527/http://money.cnn.com/gallery/leadership/2014/03/20/worlds-best-leaders.fortune |archive-date=2014-03-31 |website=Fortune}}{{Cite web |last=O'Connell |first=Gerard |date=15 April 2013 |title=Pope Francis sets up a group of eight cardinals to advise him |url=https://www.lastampa.it/vatican-insider/en/2013/04/15/news/pope-francis-sets-up-a-group-of-eight-cardinals-to-advise-him-1.36103794 |website=La Stampa |language=it-IT}} A church historian called it the "most important step{{Cite book|last=Austen|first=Ivereigh|title=The great reformer: Francis and the making of a radical pope|year=2015|isbn=978-1-250-07499-7|edition=First|location=New York|oclc=889324005}} in the history of the church for the past 10 centuries". Fortune magazine, in March 2014, singled out this move in ranking Francis first among "the world's 50 greatest leaders".{{Cite web|url=https://money.cnn.com/gallery/leadership/2014/03/20/worlds-best-leaders.fortune|title=Pope Francis - Fortune ranks the World's 50 Greatest Leaders - FORTUNE|date=2014-03-31|access-date=2019-09-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140331010527/http://money.cnn.com/gallery/leadership/2014/03/20/worlds-best-leaders.fortune|archive-date=31 March 2014}} This might be seen as part of his implementation of Vatican II's call for a more collegial style of leadership and for reform of the Roman Curia.{{Cite web |url=https://www.lastampa.it/vatican-insider/en/2013/04/15/news/pope-francis-sets-up-a-group-of-eight-cardinals-to-advise-him-1.36103794 |title=Pope Francis sets up a group of eight cardinals to advise him - La Stampa |date=2013-04-15 |website=La Stampa |language=it-IT |access-date=2019-09-24}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/03/06/cardinal-wuerl-pope-francis-has-reconnected-church-vatican-ii|title=Cardinal Wuerl: Pope Francis has reconnected the church with Vatican II|date=2017-03-06|website=America Magazine|language=en|access-date=2019-09-24}}

Francis' refocusing the Church on "a moral theology that rests on scripture and Jesus' command to love" is also seen as coming from the council,{{Cite web |url=http://vatican2voice.org/3butlerwrites/aggiorna.htm |title=Aggiornamento of Vatican II |website=vatican2voice.org |access-date=2019-09-24}} as is his uplifting of the laity for mission and calling for the presence of women in theologates.{{Cite web |title=Francis warns theologian against ideology |url=https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2019/06/in-naples-pope-francis-warns-theologian-against-collapsing-into-ideology/ |website=cruxnow.com |date=21 June 2019 |access-date=2020-05-23}} He has also softened the "forbidding" image of the Church by applying Vatican II's views on respect for conscience to issues like atheism, homosexuality, and the sacraments.{{Cite news |url=https://www.economist.com/international/2014/03/08/faith-hope-and-how-much-change |title=Faith, hope—and how much change? |date=2014-03-08 |newspaper=The Economist |access-date=2019-09-24 |issn=0013-0613}}{{Cite news|url=http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-pope-conservatives-2017-story.html|title=Conservative opposition to Pope Francis spurs talk of a schism in the Catholic Church|date=2017-04-17|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=2017-09-05|language=en-US|issn=0458-3035}} However, this has led to a struggle between "anti-Vatican II diehards and those clerics who prefer John XXIII's (and Francis') generosity of spirit".{{Cite news|url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/hellbound-after-all|title=Hellbound After All?|last=Hertzberg|first=Hendrik|magazine=The New Yorker|date=2013-06-04|access-date=2019-09-24|language=en|issn=0028-792X}} On the issue of liturgy, Francis has tried to advance the renewal initiated by Vatican II that would elicit more conscious, active participation by the people.{{Cite news|url=http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2016/07/12/vatican-rejects-cardinal-sarahs-ad-orientem-appeal/|title=Vatican rejects Cardinal Sarah's ad orientem appeal {{!}} CatholicHerald.co.uk|date=2016-07-12|work=CatholicHerald.co.uk|access-date=2018-05-18|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180519032514/http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2016/07/12/vatican-rejects-cardinal-sarahs-ad-orientem-appeal/|archive-date=2018-05-19}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/08/24/pope-francis-says-magisterial-authority-vatican-ii-liturgical-reform-irreversible|title=Pope Francis says with magisterial authority: the Vatican II liturgical reform is 'irreversible'|date=2017-08-24|work=America Magazine|access-date=2018-05-17|language=en}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2017/august/documents/papa-francesco_20170824_settimana-liturgica-nazionale.html|title=To participants in the 68th National Liturgical Week in Italy (24 August 2017) {{!}} Francis|website=w2.vatican.va|access-date=2018-05-22}} While Francis' predecessors took a dim view of liberation theology, Francis' more positive view is seen as flowing from a discernment of "the signs of the times" called for by Gaudium et spes.{{Cite book|title=The great reformer: Francis and the making of a radical pope|last=Ivereigh|first=Austen|date=2014|publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-1-62779-157-1|language=en|oclc=889324005}}{{rp|357}}

Additionally, Francis has said that "realities are more important than ideas".{{Cite web |url=https://religionnews.com/2019/06/05/lets-not-wait-for-the-theologians-says-pope-francis-about-sharing-the-eucharist/ |title='Let's not wait for the theologians,' says Pope Francis about sharing the Eucharist |date=2019-06-05 |website=Religion News Service |language=en-US |access-date=2019-09-24}}{{cite web |title=Evangelii Gaudium |url=https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.html#Realities_are_more_important_than_ideas |website=The Holy See |access-date=1 October 2019}} Through much of Francis' thought, there is an insistence on striking a new course, as well as creating tension between different aspects of Catholic teaching which he stated "must constantly be re-rooted in pastoral realities."{{Cite news|date=2017-11-18|title=New book looks at intellectual history of Francis, and why he is 'pope of polarity'|language=en-US|work=Crux|url=https://cruxnow.com/book-review/2017/11/18/new-book-looks-intellectual-history-francis-pope-polarity/|access-date=2018-04-02|postscript=. The title of Bergoglio's unpublished thesis was "Polar opposition as Structure of Daily Thought and Christian Proclamation". He is said to have continued work on this for several years after his 1986 studies in Germany.}} He has been popular with people across religious lines{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-35888289|title=Pope tops leaders' popularity poll|date=2016-03-24|work=BBC News|access-date=2017-09-26|language=en-GB}} from the start of his papacy.

Brendan Leahy, Bishop of Limerick, sees Francis' priorities as: formation of the clergy and laity to be capable of warming peoples' hearts, walking with them, dialoguing, and mending their brokenness; solidarity and collegiality; being in a permanent state of mission, with a maternal heart; and speaking up on social justice issues for the improvement of society.{{Cite book|title=The Francis Factor: A New Departure|last1=Littleton|first1=John|last2=Maher|first2=Eamon|date=2014-02-28|publisher=Columba Press|isbn=978-1-78218-146-0|language=en}}{{rp|97,98}}

According to the editors of a collection of essays on Francis, "the essence of Francis' theology is formed by a commitment to the poor and the marginalized, and unwillingness to pass moral judgment on others, a dislike of legalism and decrees from on high, and a distrust of monolithic institutions."{{rp|xviii}} Francis is very much at home with Dostoyevsky's phrase, "Beauty will save the world." "He's encouraging the Church to live joyfully in the power of Christ's presence, open to the wisdom of the Spirit."{{rp|204–205}}

Pope Francis, from the start of his papacy, has called for "a missionary impulse capable of transforming everything, so that the Church's customs... and structures can be suitably channeled for the evangelization of today's world rather than for her self-preservation".{{Cite web|url=https://www.ncronline.org/news/theology/evangelii-gaudium-amounts-francis-i-have-dream-speech|title='Evangelii Gaudium' amounts to Francis' 'I Have a Dream' speech|date=2013-11-26|website=National Catholic Reporter|language=en|access-date=2019-09-24}} For Francis, "missionary outreach is paradigmatic for all the Church's activity", and it is "the entire People of God which evangelizes", called upon by their baptism to be missionary disciples.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=69m7DgAAQBAJ&q=pope+francis+and+the+missionary+impulse&pg=PA130|title=Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism: Evangelii Gaudium and the Papal Agenda|last=Mannion|first=Gerard|date=2017-02-28|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-108-13274-9|page=130|language=en}} In his view, they should be troubled in conscience that so many live without the sense of purpose and consolation that comes from knowing Jesus Christ and without a faith community for support, with a church "too distant from their needs... a prisoner of its own rigid formulas".{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/96403967/?terms=Pope%2BFrancis|title=Pope shames Brazilian church for exodus of Catholics|date=28 July 2013|agency=Associated Press|access-date=9 June 2019}} His emphasis on joy (Joy of the Gospel, Rejoice and be glad) "is an antidote to the disenchantment and melancholy of the world today", the joy of "doing good with the aim of reviving the spirit of the church".{{rp|15,17}} In Dilexit nos he reaffirms that "the greatest danger in mission is that, amid all the things we say and do, we fail to bring about a joyful encounter with the love of Christ who embraces us and saves us".Pope Francis, [https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/20241024-enciclica-dilexit-nos.pdf Dilexit nos], paragraph 208, published on 24 October 2024, accessed on 3 April 2025

Francis was schooled in the Spiritual Exercises of the Jesuit founder Ignatius of Loyola,{{Cite news |title=The Making of a Jesuit |url=http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/making-good-decisions/vocations/the-making-of-a-jesuit |access-date=2017-09-05 |work=Ignatian Spirituality |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=The Stages of Jesuit Formation |url=http://jesuitsmidwest.org/news-detail?TN=NEWS-20141016032904 |access-date=2018-04-30 |website=jesuitsmidwest.org}} which immerse their reader in the life of Jesus to gain "an intimate knowledge of our Lord... that I may love Him more and follow Him more closely".{{Cite web |title=Louis J. Puhl, SJ Translation - The Spiritual Exercises {{!}} St. Ignatius of Loyola |url=http://spex.ignatianspirituality.com/SpiritualExercises/Puhl#marker-p101 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210318033614/http://spex.ignatianspirituality.com/SpiritualExercises/Puhl#marker-p101 |archive-date=18 March 2021 |access-date=2017-08-29 |website=spex.ignatianspirituality.com |at=104}}

With regard to "tensions and conflicts in the church" under Francis, it has been suggested that "the reason for the uneasiness is the pope's emphasis on mission. There is a profound difference between a church that is a nest or a niche, in which one can find peace, tranquility and seeming stability, and a church that sees itself as missionary through and through – always going out, reaching out to the margins."{{Cite web |date=2019-07-11 |title=Why Pope Francis' focus on mission makes Catholics uncomfortable |url=https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2019/07/11/why-pope-francis-focus-mission-makes-catholics-uncomfortable |access-date=2019-09-24 |website=America Magazine |language=en}}

With regard to the Catholic's approach to those of other faiths, Francis said that "the worst thing of all is religious proselytism, which paralyzes: 'I am talking with you in order to persuade you.'" He has called for dialogue that allows for mutual growth by attraction.{{Cite news |url=http://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2014/in-latest-interview-pope-francis-reveals-top-10-secrets-to-happiness.cfm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170905142959/http://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2014/in-latest-interview-pope-francis-reveals-top-10-secrets-to-happiness.cfm |archive-date=5 September 2017 |title=In latest interview, Pope Francis reveals top 10 secrets to happiness |last=Glatz |first=Carol |date=29 July 2014 |work=Catholic News Service |access-date=2017-06-09}} He also quotes Vatican II on the Church's continual need for reform. He speaks of the Church as "a mother with an open heart", constantly in need of communicating better, becoming "weak with the weak... everything for everyone" (1 Cor 9:22), never retreating into its own security or opting for "rigidity and defensiveness". To him, the Church "always does what good it can even if in the process its shoes get soiled by the mud of the street."{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1qs5DAAAQBAJ&q=even+if+in+the+process+its+shoes+get+soiled+by+the+mud+of+the+street.&pg=PT28 |title=Serving With Joy: Lessons From Pope Francis for Catholic Deacons Today |last1=Ditewig |first1=William T. |last2=Kandra |first2=Greg |last3=DeSanio |first3=Frank |last4=Swope |first4=Steve |date=2016-06-07 |publisher=Open Road Media |isbn=978-1-5040-3774-7 |language=en}}{{Cite web |url=http://www.contagiouslycatholic.com/2015/11/02/a-mother-with-an-open-heart/ |title=A Mother with an Open Heart |website=Contagiously Catholic |language=en-US |access-date=2017-11-23}}{{Cite web |last=MargaretObrovac|date=2014-03-21|title=Pope Francis: a mother with an open heart |website=Slideshare |url=https://www.slideshare.net/MargaretObrovac/a-mother-with-an-open-heart}} He repeats what he told the Church in Buenos Aires, namely that he prefers a Church that is "bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security... caught up in a web of obsessions and procedures."{{Cite news|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/11/26/pope-francis-poverty/3759005/|title=Pope Francis: 'I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting and dirty'|work=USA Today|access-date=2017-11-23|language=en}} Additionally, Francis decried an administrative approach that prevails over a pastoral approach, saying: "When the church does not emerge from itself to evangelize, it becomes self-referential and therefore becomes sick...The evils that, over time, occur in ecclesiastical institutions have their root in self-referentiality, a kind of theological narcissism."{{cite news |last=Nelson |first=Steven |url=https://www.usnews.com/news/newsgram/articles/2013/03/26/pope-francis-theological-narcissism-speech|title=Pope Francis Reportedly Blasted 'Theological Narcissism' Before Election |work=U.S. News & World Report|date=2013-03-26|access-date=2013-08-17}}

In March 2016, three years into his papacy, Francis' overall rating in a WIN/GIA poll was higher than that of any secular leader.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35869656|title=Pope's reforms polarise the Vatican |work=BBC |last=Wyatt|first=Caroline|date=2016-03-27|access-date=2019-09-24|language=en-GB}} In October 2018, Kathryn Jean Lopez, editor at large of National Review, responded to conservative criticism of Francis by observing: "Pope Francis didn't start the fires that divide the Catholic Church. Under Francis, they are out in the open more, at the highest levels. There is certainly sunlight that is being shone on things that have been previously in the dark... He may just trust the Holy Spirit more than the rest of us to sort it out."{{Cite news|url=https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/10/pope-francis-catholic-church-crisis-symposium/|title=The Crisis of the Catholic Church under Pope Francis |date=2018-10-21|work=National Review|access-date=2018-10-21|language=en-US}} Cardinal Michael Czerny has explained the attacks against Pope Francis by a minority in the church and society, stating that it means "he's on target".{{Cite magazine |url=https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2019/10/03/jesuit-cardinal-designate-says-pope-francis-making-vatican-ii-real|title=A Jesuit cardinal-designate says Pope Francis is making Vatican II real|date=2019-10-03|magazine=America Magazine|language=en|access-date=2019-10-06}}

Just two months into Francis' papacy, the theologian Hans Küng wrote the following piece on him that was carried in both progressive and secular media:

It is astonishing how, from the first minute of his election, Pope Francis chose a new style: unlike his predecessor, no miter with gold and jewels, no ermine-trimmed cape, no made-to-measure red shoes and headwear, no magnificent throne. Astonishing, too, that the new pope deliberately abstains from solemn gestures and high-flown rhetoric and speaks in the language of the people. And finally it is astonishing how the new pope emphasizes his humanity: He asked for the prayers of the people before he gave them his blessing; settled his own hotel bill like anybody else; showed his friendliness to the cardinals in the coach, in their shared residence, at the official goodbye; washed the feet of young prisoners, including those of a young Muslim woman. A pope who demonstrates that he is a man with his feet on the ground.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ncronline.org/news/vatican/paradox-pope-francis|title=The paradox of Pope Francis|date=2013-05-21|website=National Catholic Reporter|language=en|access-date=2019-09-24}}

The washing of the feet angered many Catholic traditionalists.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ibtimes.com/pope-francis-washes-muslim-womans-feet-did-he-violate-catholic-church-canon-1160979|title=Pope Francis Washes Muslim Woman's Feet; Did He Violate Catholic Church Canon?|date=2013-03-29|website=International Business Times|access-date=2019-09-24}} Pope Francis had performed the Lenten washing of the feet, traditionally at Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran, at a juvenile detention home and included two girls and two Muslims. He stated that he wanted to bring the church closer to the poor and marginalized so as to be in service of one another.{{Cite news|title=Pope washes the feet of two Muslim girls at prison|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/pope-washes-feet-of-two-girls-two-muslims-at-youth-prison/2013/03/28/0a7c573e-97e5-11e2-b5b4-b63027b499de_story.html}}

Many such choices of Francis have drawn notice in the press: his choice of living in the Vatican guesthouse rather than in the Apostolic Palace;{{Cite web|url=https://www.ncronline.org/news/vatican/pope-francis-live-vatican-guesthouse-not-papal-apartments|title=Pope Francis to live in Vatican guesthouse, not papal apartments|date=2013-03-26|website=National Catholic Reporter|language=en|access-date=2019-09-24}} his standing, rather than sitting in the papal throne, while receiving the accustomed congratulations from his fellow cardinals; no pontifical gold pectoral cross but the one he used in Argentina; providing a simple "good evening" before his first papal Urbi et Orbi message ("to the city and world"); riding home to Casa Santa Marta not in the papal limousine but with his fellow bishops and cardinals in the last minibus; and emphasizing that his fundamental role is to be Bishop of Rome.{{Cite web|url=https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/26793/pope-francis-personality-begins-to-change-routines|title=Pope Francis' personality begins to change routines|last=Uebbing|first=David|agency=Catholic News Agency|language=en|access-date=2019-09-24}}

The Economist commented that previous popes had avoided the name "Francis" so as not to be connected with Francis of Assisi who had given up family, wealth and career, and splendid clothing to follow Christ in utter poverty. Francis explained to journalists that he chose the name because Francis was a "poor man, a simple man, as we would like a poor church, for the poor," adding: "Right away, with regard to the poor, I thought of St. Francis of Assisi, then I thought of war... Francis loved peace and that is how the name came to me." He also said he admired Francis of Assisi's concern for the natural environment.

Decentralizing the Church away from the Vatican, thus giving more control to local bishops' conferences, continued through 2017 "in line with the Pope's vision laid out in his 2013 apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel)". Noted examples were the provision in Amoris Laetitia (2016), which argued that local conferences should oversee the issue of civilly remarried divorcees receiving Communion, as well as his recent letter on liturgical translations, Magnum principium (2017), which reduced Vatican oversight over translations into local languages. Seeing the Holy See as "at the service of the local Churches" has been a part of Francis' effort to create a "mentality of service" in the Church.{{Cite web|url=http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/francis-fifth-a-synod-humanae-vitae-milestone-and-more-decentralized-church|title=Francis' Fifth: A Synod, Humanae Vitae Milestone and More Decentralized Church|website=ncregister.com|date=10 January 2018 |access-date=2019-09-24}} Four years into his papacy, however, Francis experienced outspoken criticism from a few high-ranking conservatives in the Church over letting local bishops make decisions on Communion for divorced and remarried Catholics.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/04/vatican-civil-war-conservatives-battle-francis-lent|title=Civil war in the Vatican as conservatives battle Francis for the soul of Catholicism|last=Pepinster|first=Catherine|date=2017-03-04|work=The Observer|access-date=2019-09-24|language=en-GB|issn=0029-7712}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.salon.com/2014/12/22/pope_francis_slams_vatican_clergy_suffers_from_spiritual_alzheimers/|title=Pope Francis slams Vatican: Clergy suffers from "spiritual Alzheimer's"|date=2014-12-22|website=Salon|language=en|access-date=2019-09-24}}

Francis has spoken of consensus-building through more open dialogue in synods of bishops.{{Cite web|url=https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/01/12/how-pope-francis-changing-catholic-church|title=How Pope Francis is changing the Catholic Church|date=2017-01-12|website=America Magazine|language=en|access-date=2019-04-28}}{{Cite web|url=https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2019/10/pope-francis-using-synods-to-build-consensus-in-church-participant-says/|title=Pope Francis using synods to 'build consensus' in Church, participant says|last=White|first=Christopher|date=30 October 2019|website=cruxnow.com|access-date=2020-02-05}} Some analysts said that "transforming the meetings from an austere formality into a platform for energetic debate may go on to be seen as Francis' greatest achievement."{{Cite web|url=https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/pope-francis-everyman-pontiff-profile-200101104012522.html|title=Pope Francis, everyman pontiff: Profile|last=Mitchell|first=Charlotte|publisher=Al Jazeera|access-date=2020-02-05}} In his apostolic constitution Episcopalis communio,{{cite news|last=Pantin|first=Edward|url=http://www.ncregister.com/blog/edward-pentin/pope-francis-boosts-authority-of-the-synod-of-bishops|title=Pope Francis Boosts Authority of the Synod of Bishops|date=18 September 2018|work=National Catholic Register|access-date=21 May 2019}}{{cite news|url=https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/39398/pope-francis-approves-new-constitution-for-synod-of-bishops|title=Pope Francis approves new constitution for Synod of Bishops|last=Brockhaus|first=Hannah|date=18 September 2018|access-date=21 May 2019|agency=Catholic News Agency}} Francis introduced a more direct process whereby a final synodal document became a part of the Church's magisterium simply by receiving papal approval.{{Cite web|url=https://www.chicagocatholic.com/vatican/-/article/2020/03/04/responding-to-amazon-synod-pope-francis-avoids-either-or-|title=Responding to Amazon synod, Pope Francis avoids 'either-or'|website=Chicago Catholic|language=en-US|access-date=2020-03-05}} The new constitution also provided for the laity to send their contributions directly to the synod's secretary general. Additionally, Francis called for attention to the sensus fidei, or "instinct of faith", especially of the poor, whereby the Catholic faithful discern what is of God through a conaturality or intuitive wisdom.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6OOBDgAAQBAJ&q=connaturality+of+intuitive+wisdom+pope+francis&pg=PA46|title=Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism: Evangelii Gaudium and the Papal Agenda|last=Mannion|first=Gerard|date=2017-04-27|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-14254-1|page=46|language=en}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/22/world/europe/vatican-meeting-reveals-divisions-among-catholics-on-family-issues.html|title=Pope Francis' Plans for Inclusiveness Divide Bishops|last1=Goodstein|first1=Laurie|date=2015-10-21|work=The New York Times|access-date=2017-11-23|last2=Povoledo|first2=Elisabetta|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}

Francis has decried the imbalance that can occur "when we speak more about law than about grace, more about the Church than about Christ, more about the Pope than about God's word."{{Cite news |last=Reese |first=Thomas |url=https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/faith-and-justice/church-reform-requires-decentralization-synodality|title=Church reform requires decentralization, synodality |date=2016-02-11|work=National Catholic Reporter|access-date=2017-06-07|language=en}}{{Cite news |title=Francis Calls for Decentralization And 'Conversion' of the Papacy|url=http://www.americamagazine.org/issue/francis-calls-decentralization-and-conversion-papacy|date=2015-10-21 |work=America Magazine|access-date=2017-06-07|language=en}} Francis' efforts toward a "healthy decentralisation" of the Church have polarized opinion within the Roman Curia and in the church in general. Some fear this can dilute the universal message, sow confusion, and further divide the church. The struggle that began early in Francis' papacy, between "anti-Vatican II diehards and those clerics who prefer John XXIII's (and Francis') generosity of spirit", had become "unique in its visibility" by 2018, with bookstores carrying titles like Lost Shepherd, The Dictator Pope, and The Political Pope: How Pope Francis is Delighting the Left and Abandoning Conservatives.

Henri de Lubac, a fellow Jesuit, "played a key role in shaping the Council's take on ecclesiology," with a primary concern for understanding the Church as "a community of the whole People of God, rather than just the clergy – a concept which can still be heard in Francis' continual blasting of clericalism and his references to the 'one, holy People of God.'"Elise Harris, "Pope's visit to Jesuits highlights society friends old and new," Crux, 10 July 2019, https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2019/07/10/popes-visit-to-jesuits-highlights-society-friends-old-and-new/ . Francis has emphasized that the "hour of the laity" has arrived and decried clericalism as rife in the Church, stating that it "leads to the functionalization of the laity, treating them as 'messengers'."{{Cite news|url=https://zenit.org/articles/text-of-popes-letter-to-pontifical-commission-for-latin-america/|title=Text of Pope's Letter to Pontifical Commission for Latin America|date=2016-04-27|work=Zenit|access-date=2018-04-14|language=en-US}} Through clericalism, he stated, a priest "can become seduced by the prospect of a career... turning him into a functionary, a cleric worried more about himself, about organizations and structures, than about the true good of the People of God".{{Cite news |url=http://en.radiovaticana.va/storico/2013/05/22/pope_at_mass_culture_of_encounter_is_the_foundation_of_peace/en1-694445 |title=Pope at Mass: Culture of encounter is the foundation of peace |work=Vatican Radio|language=en |access-date=30 June 2017}} He has spoken of the "eighth sacrament" that some priests would create—the "pastoral customs office" that would close doors on people instead of facilitating their reception of the sacraments.{{Cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/cotidie/2013/documents/papa-francesco-cotidie_20130525_christian-acceptance.html|title=Christian acceptance |date=25 May 2013 |author=Pope Francis |website=Vatican |access-date=2017-06-09}} Addressing apostolic nuncios, who recommend to the pope good candidates for episcopal appointment, Francis said:

{{Blockquote|text=In the delicate task of carrying out inquiries for episcopal appointments be careful that the candidates are pastors close to the people, fathers and brothers, that they are gentle, patient and merciful; animated by inner poverty, the freedom of the Lord and also by outward simplicity and austerity of life, that they do not have the psychology of "Princes".{{Cite web|url=https://zenit.org/articles/pope-francis-address-to-pontifical-representatives-and-apostolic-nuncios/|title=Pope Francis' Address to Pontifical Representatives and Apostolic Nuncios |work=ZENIT |date=21 June 2013 |access-date=2017-06-09}}}}

Francis wants "a church based not on fancy vestments and infallible pronouncements, but on love of God and love of others".{{rp|xx}} He has been critical of a church that is preoccupied with small-minded rules and is a museum for the saintly few rather than, with missionary zeal, being a place of welcome for the many.{{rp|32}} For the church's clergy, Francis sees "the need to hold both action and contemplation in creative tension," to be leaders who are led by God's grace, contemplatives in action.{{rp|109}} He has castigated and taken action against clerics whom he sees as living a princely life.{{Cite web|url=https://www.christiantoday.com/article/pope.francis.blasts.cardinals.extravagant.penthouse/37833.htm|title=Pope Francis blasts cardinal's extravagant penthouse |work=Christian Today |date=3 June 2014 |access-date=2017-06-12}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.episcopalcafe.com/pope-francis-continues-to-clean-house/|title=Pope Francis continues to clean house|date=2015-07-18|work=Episcopal Cafe|access-date=2017-06-12|language=en-US}} Francis said clergy should be shepherds looking after the people, but knows they can be tempted and corrupted by power. When they take from the people instead of giving, simony and other corruption can follow. Love between the clergy and the people is destroyed.{{cite news |url=http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/05/15/pope_francis_at_mass:_bishops_and_priests_need_prayers_of_faithful/en1-692314 |title=Pope at Mass: bishops and priests need prayers of faithful |date=2013-05-15 |work=Vatican Radio |access-date=7 October 2013}}

Francis fears that some clerics "become wolves and not shepherds... careerism and the search for a promotion [to the hierarchy] come under the category of spiritual worldliness," deceitfully trying to appear holy. Francis is known for his "snarky" remarks.{{Cite news|url=https://theweek.com/articles/451206/pope-francis-insult-comic|title=Pope Francis, insult comic|date=2014-02-11|work=The Week|access-date=2018-04-20}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/01/playing-holy-fire/|title=Playing with holy fire {{!}} The Spectator|date=2017-01-07|work=The Spectator|access-date=2018-04-20|language=en-US}} He said of clerical vanity: "Look at the peacock; it's beautiful if you look at it from the front. But if you look at it from behind, you discover the truth... Whoever gives in to such self-absorbed vanity has huge misery hiding inside them."{{Cite news|url=https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/31896/pope-to-new-priests-dont-be-a-peacock|title=Pope to new priests: Don't be a peacock|agency=Catholic News Agency|access-date=2017-06-14|language=en}} In 2014, he admonished 138 newly appointed bishops not to surround themselves with "courtiers, climbers, and yes-men" but to bring people the Gospel that makes people free.{{Cite web|url=https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2014/september/documents/papa-francesco_20140918_nuovi-vescovi.html|title=To Bishops appointed over the past year |date=18 September 2014 |author=Pope Francis |website=Vatican |access-date=2017-06-09}}

In his efforts to undercut clericalism and careerism in the Catholic Church, Francis stopped bestowing the title of "Monsignor" on secular priests under the age of 65. He always preferred that people call him "Father" rather than "My Lord", "Your Grace", or "Your Eminence", as "Father" best reflects the priestly mission.{{Cite web|url=https://www.lastampa.it/vatican-insider/en/2014/01/04/news/pope-abolishes-honorary-title-of-monsignor-for-diocesan-priests-under-the-age-of-65-1.35931464|title=Pope abolishes honorary title of monsignor for diocesan priests under the age of 65 - La Stampa|date=2014-01-04|website=La Stampa|language=it-IT|access-date=2019-09-24}} Of this preference, a bishop with experience working in the Vatican noted the general feeling that, while formerly being treated like branch managers, "We're treated now as brothers".{{Cite web|url=https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2019/11/new-jersey-pennsylvania-bishops-spend-thanksgiving-with-pope/|title=New Jersey, Pennsylvania bishops spend Thanksgiving with pope|website=cruxnow.com|date=29 November 2019|access-date=2019-11-30}}

Speaking to 120 superiors of religious orders, Francis kept up his campaign against clericalism, saying that seminary formation must be "a work of art, not a police action" where seminarians "grit their teeth, try not to make mistakes, follow the rules smiling a lot, just waiting for the day when they are told 'Good, you have finished formation.'" He further stated that "This is hypocrisy that is the result of clericalism, which is one of the worst evils" and that priestly formation "must form their hearts. Otherwise we are creating little monsters. And then these little monsters mold the people of God. This really gives me goose bumps."{{Cite news|url=https://www.americamagazine.org/content/all-things/pope-warns-poorly-trained-priests-can-become-little-monsters|title=Pope: Warns that Poorly Trained Priests Can Become 'Little Monsters'|date=2014-01-04|work=America Magazine|access-date=2017-06-09|language=en}}

Picking up on Bishop de Smedt's much-quoted remark, at the Second Vatican Council, that the Catholic church was suffering from triumphalism, clericalism, and legalism,{{Cite web|url=https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/mutual-presence|title=A Mutual Presence {{!}} Commonweal Magazine|website=commonwealmagazine.org|date=3 October 2005 |language=en|access-date=2017-09-28}} Francis described the Church's "temptation to triumphalism... a Church that is content with what it is or has – well sorted, well organized, with all its offices, everything in order, everything perfect, efficient". But this, he said, is "a Church that denies its martyrs, because it does not know that martyrs are needed". A healthy Church, on the other hand, recognizes "triumph through failure – human failure – the failure of the Cross."{{cite news | title=Pope at Mass: The temptation of triumphalism | work=Vatican Radio | date=29 May 2013 | url=http://en.radiovaticana.va/storico/2013/05/29/pope_at_mass_the_temptation_of_triumphalism/en1-696517 | access-date=30 June 2017}}

Austen Ivereigh, in writing a biography of Francis, described him as having the rare combination of "the political genius of a charismatic leader and the prophetic holiness of a desert saint", the later being a characteristic of his theology.{{Cite book|title=The great reformer: Francis and the making of a radical pope|last=Austen|first=Ivereigh|year=2015|isbn=978-1-250-07499-7|edition= First|location=New York|oclc=889324005}}{{rp|357}} Ivereigh also stated those who think that Francis "speaks to the emotions and not to the intelligence... don't know Bergoglio, who has had an impressive formation in many fields."{{Cite book|title=Pope Francis: Life and Revolution: A Biography of Jorge Bergoglio|last=Piqué|first=Elisabetta|date=2014-10-21|publisher=Loyola Press|isbn=978-0-8294-4217-5|edition= 1st|location=Chicago, Ill|page=236|language=en}} For his dissertation work, Francis studied Romano Guardini's idea of holding conflicting notions in tension in a multicultural world, to respect "polar tensions" without negating any of them or reducing them to a higher synthesis, and to respond to each in the light of the gospel.{{rp|20}}

Francis also said that "theological freedom" is necessary to experience new paths and to "develop different facets of the inexhaustible riches of the Gospel".{{Cite web|url=https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2019/06/21/in-naples-pope-francis-warns-theologian-against-collapsing-into-ideology/|title=Collapsing into ideology|website=cruxnow.com|date=21 June 2019 |access-date=2019-09-24}} To some, he has softened the image of an institution that had seemed forbidding during the time of his predecessor, Benedict, and shown that a pope can hold thoroughly modern views on atheism ("The issue for those who do not believe in God is to obey their conscience"), homosexuality ("If a person is gay and seeks God and has goodwill, who am I to judge?"),{{cite web|url=https://www.ncronline.org/news/vatican/francis-explains-who-am-i-judge |title=Francis explains 'who am I to judge?' |first=Joshua J. |last=McElwee |work=National Catholic Reporter |date=10 January 2016|access-date=3 October 2020}} and single mothers (he has accused priests who refuse to baptise their children of having a "sick mentality").

Francis has also given encouragement to theologians who, at times, found themselves in an adversarial relationship during John Paul's papacy,{{Cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/pope-john-paul-ii-9204.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220507/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/pope-john-paul-ii-9204.html |archive-date=7 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Pope John Paul II: theologians|date=2005-04-04|work=The Independent|access-date=2017-09-29|language=en-GB}}{{cbignore}} a time when, according to Jason Horowitz of The New York Times, the conservative wing of the church dominated{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/28/world/europe/pope-francis-vatican-roman-catholics-populism.html|title=Pope Francis in the Wilderness|date=2018-04-28|work=The New York Times|access-date=2018-05-19|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}} and when there was a revival of the importance given to scholastic philosophy.{{Cite book|title=Thomistic Renaissance - The Natural Moral Law: The Reawakening of Scholasticism in Catholic Teaching as Evidenced by Pope John Paul II in Veritatis Splendor|last=Trigilio|first=John Jr|date=2004-04-15|publisher=Dissertation.Com.|isbn=978-1-58112-223-7|edition= 2001 Updated|location=Boca Raton, Florida|language=en}} One extended coverage of Francis' differences with the previous papacies summarized, succinctly, that Francis "revealed his own obsessions to be more in line with the boss' son" by opting to live in a two-room apartment; by saying that ecclesiastics should not be obsessed with issues like homosexuality, birth control and abortion; and by scathingly criticizing unchecked free-market capitalism.{{Cite magazine|last1=Binelli|first1=Mark|date=2014-01-28|title=Pope Francis: The Times They Are A-Changin'|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/pope-francis-the-times-they-are-a-changin-49434/|access-date=2019-09-24|magazine=Rolling Stone|language=en-US}} Francis spoke of the "decadent scholasticism" of his time[https://jesuits.eu/images/docs/GC_36_Documents.pdf "To Have Courage and Prophetic Audacity': Dialogue of Pope Francis with the Jesuits gathered in the 36th General Congregation".] and has called for openness to "differing currents of thought in philosophy, theology, and pastoral practice", stating that being "in dialogue with other sciences and human experiences is most important for our discernment on how best to bring the Gospel message to different cultural contexts and groups." Francis has also expressed a want for a more "welcoming church" and "has decried a church that is inward-looking and self-referential... (It) must be prepared to go out to the peripheries, to encounter others in dialogue,"{{Cite book|title=Go into the Streets! The Welcoming Church of Pope Francis|date=2016-03-07|publisher=Paulist Press|isbn=978-0-8091-4951-3|editor1=Rausch, SJ |editor2=Thomas P. |editor3= Gaillardetz, SJ |editor4=Richard R.|language=en}}{{rp|104}} and "in solidarity with the 'castaways of history'."

Francis' meeting with the Russian Orthodox patriarch was the first such for a pope since the 11th Century East–West Schism.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-35565085|title=Pope in historic Russia church talks|date=2016-02-13|access-date=2019-09-24|language=en-GB}} Additionally, a meeting with Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the highest authority in Sunni Islam, could not have come about without Francis' numerous conciliatory gestures toward the Muslim world, including his visiting migrants on the island of Lesbos and bringing three Syrian Muslim families back to the Vatican City.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/24/pope-francis-embraces-senior-imam-sheikh-tayeb|title='Our meeting is the message': Pope Francis embraces senior imam|last=Agence France-Presse|first=Agence|date=2016-05-24|work=The Guardian|access-date=2019-09-24|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}[https://web.archive.org/web/20190214133719/https://wherepeteris.com/pope-francis-and-grand-imam-sign-joint-statement-on-human-fraternity/ Adam Rasmussen, (6 February 2019) "Pope Francis and Grand Imam sign joint statement on Human Fraternity"]. Francis' visit to the Arabian Peninsula, the home of Islam, also marked a historic first for a pope, of immense significance, thus bringing hope for "a new era of religious tolerance in the Gulf".{{Cite web|url=https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/the-significance-of-pope-francis-uae-visit-is-impossible-to-exaggerate-nobel-committee-take-note|title=The significance of Pope Francis' UAE visit is impossible to exaggerate (Nobel Committee, take note)|last=Moore|first=Johnnie|date=2019-02-04|work=Fox News Channel|language=en-US|access-date=2019-09-24}} Francis has additionally reached out to the Pentecostal churches, which some have called "a new and heretofore scarcely imaginable step forward".{{rp|389}}{{Cite book|title=Pope Francis' Revolution of Tenderness and Love: Theological and Pastoral Perspectives|last=Kasper|first=Walter|date=2015-03-06|publisher=Paulist Press|isbn=978-0-8091-0623-3|edition= Translation |location=New York|language=en}}{{rp|58}} Francis was also the first Pope to meet with the leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.{{Cite web|url=https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=1836619&itype=CMSID|title=Pope, Mormon leader make history with a handshake|website=The Salt Lake Tribune|language=en-US|access-date=2019-09-24}}

Francis has not continued the attacks on secularism that were common during Pope Benedict XVI's papacy (2005–2013).{{Cite news |url=http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/pope-benedict-xvi-vs.-secularism|title=Pope Benedict XVI vs. Secularism|work=National Catholic Register|access-date=2017-09-05}} Francis said:

{{Blockquote|text=The complaints of today about how "barbaric" the world is, these complaints sometimes end up giving birth within the church to desires to establish order in the sense of pure conservation, as a defense. No: God is to be encountered in the world of today... God manifests himself in time and is present in the processes of history.{{Cite news |title=A Big Heart Open to God: An interview with Pope Francis|url=https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2013/09/30/big-heart-open-god-interview-pope-francis |date=2013-09-30 |work=America Magazine|access-date=2017-06-10|language=en}}|sign=|source=}}

To find God in today's world, Francis frequently calls for "discernment", an important notion from the Jesuit founder's Spiritual Exercises. Francis said that by discernment, one could "avoid a kind of legalism" and help people conform to the image of Christ.{{Cite news |title=To understand Pope Francis, you have to understand the Jesuits|url=https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/36300/to-understand-pope-francis-you-have-to-understand-the-jesuits|agency=Catholic News Agency|access-date=2017-06-25|language=en}} Francis has also noted that a "parliamentary approach" leaves one "entrenched in 'his truth,'... Thus, walking together becomes impossible". In the synodal approach, according to Francis, one must "learn to listen, in community, to what the Spirit says to the Church".{{Cite web|date=2020-09-04|title=Pope says synod used 'parliamentary logic' when debating married priests|url=https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2020/09/pope-says-synod-used-parliamentary-logic-when-debating-married-priests/|access-date=2020-09-06|website=Crux|language=en-CA}} Francis also said that "ultimately people have responsibility for their own lives and salvation," that "he does not have all the answers," and "that he can live with doubt. He often points to the importance of discernment... He is critical of 'those who today always look for the disciplinarian solutions, those who long for an exaggerated doctrinal 'security'... He is steering Catholics away from the dogmatism and legalism of the past and the old-time religion and proposing a more nuanced approach to morality."{{rp|75}} He is seen as following a more inductive (beginning with the person) rather than deductive (from past teachings) approach to situations arising, following the "See-Judge-Act" method in applying Catholic social teaching.{{Cite news|url=https://cruxnow.com/news-analysis/2018/07/24/recalling-the-belgian-cardinal-who-truly-shaped-franciss-destiny/|title=Recalling the Belgian cardinal who truly shaped Francis's destiny|date=2018-07-24|work=Crux|access-date=2018-07-27|language=en-US}}

Time magazine selected Francis "Person of the Year" in the first year of his papacy, writing:{{Cite magazine |url=https://poy.time.com/2013/12/11/person-of-the-year-pope-francis-the-peoples-pope/|title=Pope Francis, The People's Pope|last1=Chua-Eoan|first1=Howard|magazine=Time|access-date=2017-06-13|last2=Dias|first2=Elizabeth|language=en-US|issn=0040-781X}}

{{Blockquote|text=What makes this Pope so important is the speed with which he has captured the imaginations of millions who had given up on hoping for the church at all. People weary of the endless parsing of sexual ethics, the buck-passing infighting over lines of authority when all the while (to borrow from Milton), "the hungry Sheep look up, and are not fed". In a matter of months, Francis has elevated the healing mission of the church – the church as servant and comforter of hurting people in an often harsh world – above the doctrinal police work so important to his recent predecessors.|sign=|source=}}

Francis does not see women being ordained to the ministerial priesthood. However, he said: "Our great dignity derives from Baptism... When we speak of sacramental power 'we are in the realm of function, not that of dignity or holiness'," and he added:{{Cite web|url=https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/francis-chronicles/popes-quotes-indispensable-contribution-women|title=Pope's Quotes: The indispensable contribution of women|date=2013-11-26|website=National Catholic Reporter|language=en|access-date=2019-09-24}}

{{Blockquote|Many women share pastoral responsibilities with priests, helping to guide people, families, and groups and offering new contributions to theological reflection. But we need to create still broader opportunities for a more incisive female presence in the Church ... in the various other settings where important decisions are made.}}

Looking ahead, he said that many women are well prepared to contribute to religious and theological discussions at the highest levels alongside their male counterparts.{{Cite news|url=https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/11/07/pope-francis-appoints-two-laywomen-key-positions-roman-curia|title=Pope Francis appoints two laywomen to key positions in Roman Curia|date=2017-11-07|work=America Magazine|access-date=2017-11-24|language=en}} It is more necessary than ever that they do so, according to Francis,{{Cite news |date=9 June 2017 |url=http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2017/06/09/pope_francis_central_role_of_women_interfaith_dialogue/1317917 |title=Pope Francis: central role of women interfaith dialogue |work=Vatican Radio |access-date=2017-06-10|language=en}} "because women look at reality with a different, a greater richness."{{Cite news|url=http://www.lastampa.it/2015/01/19/vaticaninsider/eng/the-vatican/francis-ill-tell-you-about-a-time-they-tried-to-bribe-me-vivA87qe2wLjtwAAJs5e8I/pagina.html|title=Francis: "I'll tell you about a time they tried to bribe me"|work=La Stampa|access-date=2017-09-29|language=it-IT}} In the first six years of Francis' papacy, "the profile of women, especially women religious, at Vatican events has risen sharply."{{Cite web|url=https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2019/05/05/holy-boldness-profile-of-women-religious-rising-at-vatican/|title=Holy boldness: Profile of women religious rising at Vatican|website=cruxnow.com|date=5 May 2019 |access-date=2019-05-06}} Francis also asked universities to accept laypeople and particularly women alongside seminarians, since "the contribution that women are giving and can give to theology is indispensable" and must be supported.{{Cite web|url=https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2019/06/21/in-naples-pope-francis-warns-theologian-against-collapsing-into-ideology/|title=Francis warns against collapsing into ideology|website=cruxnow.com|date=21 June 2019 |access-date=2019-09-24}}

Additionally, Francis set up a commission to study the history of women as deaconesses in the Catholic Church, but after two years, it maintained "sharply different positions" and disbanded. The issue was whether the blessing deaconesses received in the early church amounted to ordination, as well as whether they performed tasks similar those of male deacons. Francis then acknowledged further need of study.{{Cite web|url=https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2019/05/07/pope-francis-says-commission-women-deacons-did-not-reach-agreement|title=Pope Francis says commission on women deacons did not reach agreement|date=2019-05-07|website=America Magazine|language=en|access-date=2019-09-24}} In 2014, Francis appointed the first woman ever as a voting member of a Vatican congregation, the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. Then, in 2019, he appointed seven religious sisters to full membership in the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life{{Cite web|url=https://www.ncronline.org/news/vatican/theologians-praise-popes-historic-appointment-women-members-vatican-congregation|title=Theologians praise pope's historic appointment of women as members of Vatican congregation|date=2019-07-11|website=National Catholic Reporter|language=en|access-date=2019-09-24}} and four women as consultors to the secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, which Christopher Lamb of The Tablet described as "crucial" for setting Pope Francis' agenda.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/11724/pope-appoints-four-women-to-top-synod-jobs-|title=Pope appoints four women to top Synod jobs|last=enquiries@thetablet.co.uk|first=The Tablet-w|website=The Tablet|language=en|access-date=2020-02-26}}

In January 2021, Francis promulgated Spiritus Domini, which modified Canon Law to admit women to the instituted ministries of lector and acolyte. As these had previously been considered minor orders and closed to women, Pope Francis wrote that a doctrinal development had occurred in this regard.{{Cite web|last=Mares|first=Courtney|date=January 11, 2021|title=Pope Francis admits women to ministries of lector and acolyte in new motu proprio|url=https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/246027/pope-francis-admits-women-to-ministries-of-lector-and-acolyte-in-new-motu-proprio|access-date=2021-01-11|website=Catholic News Agency|language=en}}{{Cite web|date=2021-01-11|title=Pope Francis: Ministries of lector and acolyte to be open to women|url=https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2021-01/pope-francis-opens-ministries-lector-acolyte-women.html|access-date=2021-01-11|website=Vatican News|language=en}}

Celibacy has never been regarded as a divine law for priests. Francis expressed his openness to consider having some older married men ordained, especially in mission areas where there was an extreme shortage of priests.{{Cite news |title=Pope Francis: married men could be ordained to ease priest shortages|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/10/pope-francis-married-men-could-be-ordained-to-ease-priest-shortages|last=Agence France-Presse|first=Agence|date=2017-03-10|work=The Guardian|access-date=2017-06-09|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/10/europe/pope-married-men-priests/index.html|title=Pope may allow married Catholic men as priests|last=Gallagher|first=Delia|date=10 March 2017|publisher=CNN|access-date=2017-09-05}}

File:Pope Francis Malacanang 19.jpg

In his letter Amoris Laetitia ("The Joy of Love"), Francis advocated for flexibility, tolerance, and compassion in the Church. He wrote: "By thinking that everything is black and white, we sometimes close off the way of grace and of growth."{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-vatican-pope-divorce-communion-20160408-story.html|title=Pope Francis eases the way for divorced Catholics, but reiterates opposition to gay unions|last1=Wilkinson|first1=Tracy|date=2016-04-08|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=2017-11-24|last2=Parvini|first2=Sarah|language=en-US|issn=0458-3035}} The confessional, he said,

... must not be a torture chamber but rather an encounter with the Lord's mercy which spurs us on to do our best. A small step, in the midst of great human limitations, can be more pleasing to God than a life which appears outwardly in order but moves through the day without confronting great difficulties.{{Cite web|url=https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2016/04/opinion-usatoday-catholic-church/|title=Catholic Families Need More From Pope Francis - Northwestern Now|website=news.northwestern.edu|language=en-US|access-date=2017-11-24}}

He quoted St. Ambrose: the Communion bread "is not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak." Such talk led a few cardinals in the church to speak of an impending schism.{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-pope-conservatives-2017-story.html|title=Conservative opposition to Pope Francis spurs talk of a schism in the Catholic Church|date=2017-04-17|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=2017-09-05|language=en-US|issn=0458-3035}}

On his visit to the United States, Francis decried: "A Christianity which 'does' little in practice, while incessantly 'explaining' its teachings, is dangerously unbalanced", bringing to mind his saying that "a supposed soundness of doctrine or discipline leads instead to a narcissistic and authoritarian elitism whereby, instead of evangelizing, one analyzes and classifies others, and instead of opening the door to grace, one exhausts his or her energies in inspecting and verifying".{{Cite news|url=https://aleteia.org/2015/10/05/pope-francis-offers-good-news-for-narcissists/|title=Pope Francis Offers Good News For Narcissists|date=2015-10-05|work=Aleteia.org – Worldwide Catholic Network Sharing Faith Resources for those seeking Truth – Aleteia.org|access-date=2017-11-24|language=en-US}} Francis had earlier warned about hiding behind "the appearance of piety and even love for the church" while seeking "human glory and personal well-being" and emphasizing certain rules of a "particular Catholic style from the past."{{Cite web|url=https://www.catholicsun.org/2013/11/26/the-joy-of-the-gospel-pope-lays-out-his-vision-for-an-evangelical-church/|title='The Joy of the Gospel': Pope lays out his vision for an evangelical church|last=Service|first=Catholic News|date=2013-11-26|website=The Catholic Sun|language=en-US|access-date=2019-09-24}}

Francis has also advised priests that "the Church must be a place of mercy freely given, where everyone can feel welcomed, loved, forgiven and encouraged to live the good life of the Gospel."{{Cite book|title=Men of Mercy: Pope Francis Speaks to Priests|last=Francis|first=Pope|date=2016-10-21|publisher=Beacon Publishing|isbn=978-1-942611-97-4|location=Erlanger, Kentucky|page=201|language=en}} He has additionally mentioned the "aggressive and warlike" approach of the past toward preserving racial and doctrinal purity. He stated that people best serve the Gospel "not by wielding the doctrine of the church as a club" but by meeting the people "'in the streets', listening to their concerns and attending to their wounds" and knowing "through a pastoral 'connaturality' how the church's doctrine can best be employed to announce God's solidarity with the poor and suffering of this world, and the profligate mercy of God."{{rp|138}}

Francis said that, in docility to the work of the Spirit, people should proclaim the faith without proselytizing, rather with dialogue with peoples, cultures, and different religious traditions, following "the evangelical criterion of mercy".

Francis stuck to his informal ways while baptizing 32 babies in the Sistine Chapel, inviting the women to breastfeed their children there "if they are hungry." While almost unheard of during Catholic church services in Italy, this has been regarded as another of his efforts "to break down the stiff protocol in the Vatican."{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/the-pope/10566752/Let-them-drink-milk-Pope-encourages-mums-to-breastfeed-in-Sistine-Chapel.html|title=Let them drink milk: Pope encourages mums to breastfeed in Sistine Chapel|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=2014-01-12|access-date=2019-09-24|language=en-GB|issn=0307-1235}}

The editors of Go into the Streets! wrote that "Pope Francis inherited a Church which in many ways had moved away from the vision of the Second Vatican Council."{{rp|87}} John F. Baldovin described Francis' motu proprio Magnum Principium (3 September 2017) as:

... certainly a significant change in direction with regard to who has responsibility for liturgical translations. The pope has changed Canon 838 in two important ways. The weight of responsibility now falls much more on the shoulders of the various episcopal conferences... Those conferences which have been experiencing tension with the Vatican over revised translations, like the French-speaking and German-speaking, now have much more breathing room in deciding what is best for translating liturgical texts.{{Cite news|url=https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/09/09/liturgical-expert-explains-pope-francis-change-mass-translation-rules|title=A liturgical expert explains Pope Francis' change to Mass translation rules|date=2017-09-09|work=America Magazine|access-date=2018-05-01|language=en}}

Francis also broke with Vatican tradition by celebrating a Mass in Chiapas, Mexico, that incorporated indigenous, Mayan elements. Additionally, he encouraged the Mexican bishops to show similar, "singular tenderness in the way you regard indigenous peoples".{{Cite web|last=Hackman|first=Michelle|date=2016-02-17|title=6 key moments from Pope Francis's trip to Mexico|url=https://www.vox.com/2016/2/17/11038644/pope-francis-mexico|access-date=2020-08-10|website=Vox|language=en}} He distanced himself from the previous popes who gave broad permission for reversion to the Mass in Latin.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ncronline.org/news/vatican/latin-mass-fans-celebrate-10-year-anniversary-without-pope|title=Latin Mass fans celebrate 10-year anniversary, without pope|last=Winfield|first=Nicole|date=14 September 2017}} Also, Francis has spoken against efforts to encourage priests to celebrate Mass ad orientem{{Cite news|url=http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2016/07/12/vatican-rejects-cardinal-sarahs-ad-orientem-appeal/|title=Vatican rejects Cardinal Sarah's ad orientem appeal {{!}} CatholicHerald.co.uk|date=2016-07-12|work=CatholicHerald.co.uk|access-date=2018-05-18|language=en-US}} and has called "the altar, the centre toward which our churches focus attention."

Of the Eucharistic celebration, Francis said: "A sacrament is not 'a magical rite' but rather the instrument God has chosen in order to continue to walk beside man as his traveling companion through life."{{Cite web|url=https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/events/event.dir.html/content/vaticanevents/en/2013/9/24/papa-francesco-cotidie_20130924_travelling-companion.html|title=A travelling companion (24 September 2013)|website=Vatican.va|access-date=2017-06-09}} In a brief address to liturgists on the anniversary of Musicam sacram, Francis mentioned, eight times, the importance of the peoples' active participation in song.{{Cite web|url=https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2017/march/documents/papa-francesco_20170304_convegno-musica-sacra.html|title=To Participants in the International Conference on Sacred Music |date=4 March 2017 |author=Pope Francis |website=Vatican |access-date=2017-06-09}} In a address to charismatics, he reemphasized this.{{Cite web|url=https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/cotidie/2014/documents/papa-francesco-cotidie_20140128_prayer-praise.html|title=The prayer of praise |date=28 January 2014 |author=Pope Francis |website=Vatican |access-date=2017-06-09}} He said that since he had the upper portion of his right lung removed, he is too short of breath to sing the Mass.

Reflecting on the deep meaning of the Communion bread, he draws on Paul's epistles that point to oneness as Christ's body, where all suffer together and are honored together (1 Cor 12:26).{{Cite news|url=http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2015/01/27/pope_warns_of_globalization_of_indifference_in_lenten_messag/1120128|title=Pope warns of globalization of indifference in Lenten message|date=27 January 2015|work=Vatican Radio|access-date=2017-06-09|language=en}} Communion, he says, is not "a private prayer or a beautiful spiritual exercise" but a means of one's transformation, one's taking on the heart of Christ: peaceable, forgiving, reconciling, in solidarity with all.{{Cite web|url=https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/angelus/2015/documents/papa-francesco_angelus_20150816.html|title=Angelus, 16 August 2015 {{!}} Francis|website=Vatican|access-date=2017-06-09}}

Francis has explained how sacraments are means or instruments, not ends in themselves. He went on to state that true disciples encounter the Lord in the sacraments and receive the power to follow Jesus' teaching, that one cannot cover up injustice, dishonesty, and uncharitableness against one's neighbor with prayers and devotions.{{Cite web|url=https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/homilies/2015/documents/papa-francesco_20150307_omelia-parrocchia-ognissanti.html|title=Pastoral Visit to the Roman Parish of "Ognissanti"|author=Pope Francis|date=7 March 2015|website=Vatican|access-date=2017-06-09}} Of his encyclical Gaudete et exsultate, his emphasis on good works as a means to holiness, Alan L. Anderson observed: "I find it curious so little attention is paid in His Holiness's exhortation to the pivotal role played by the sacraments in attaining holiness. Indeed, to attempt holiness without them would be, well, to flirt with neo-Pelagianism."{{Cite news|url=https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2018/04/15/a-curious-absence-in-gaudete-et-exsultate/|title=A Curious Absence in 'Gaudete et Exsultate' - The Catholic Thing|date=2018-04-15|work=The Catholic Thing|access-date=2018-04-21|language=en-US}} However, Francis has himself emphasized the importance of making the sacraments easily available to all, often amidst difficult circumstances today, and to keep donations anonymous lest sacraments seem to have a price.{{Cite web|title=Vatican issues guidelines for parishes in the Pope Francis era|url=https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2020/07/vatican-issues-guidelines-for-parishes-in-the-pope-francis-era/|access-date=2020-07-22|website=cruxnow.com|date=20 July 2020}}

Francis has said: "It is sad to encounter a privatized Church, as this form of selfishness indicates a lack of faith."{{Cite web|url=http://www.catholicworldreport.com/2013/09/25/pope-francis-do-not-attempt-to-privatize-the-church/|title=Pope Francis: Do not attempt to "privatize" the Church – Catholic World Report|website=catholicworldreport.com|language=en-US|access-date=2017-11-23}} He has criticized people who promote privatized devotion while neglecting the formation of the laity toward the advancement of society.{{Cite news|url=http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/pope-francis-stresses-formation-of-the-laity-for-their-mission-in-the-world|title=Pope Francis Stresses Formation of the Laity for Their Mission in the World|work=National Catholic Register|access-date=2017-11-24}} In addressing charismatics, Francis insisted that their efforts must go beyond converting people to Catholicism, toward caring for the needy and working for justice.{{Cite web|date=2020-05-30|title=Pope Francis calls upon the Catholic charismatic community to work for justice|url=https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2020/05/30/pope-francis-calls-upon-catholic-charismatic-community-work-justice|access-date=2020-06-03|website=America Magazine|language=en}} He has also said that "The Eucharist is not a private prayer" but should transform our life into Jesus' own "dynamism of love", making us "people of peace, people of forgiveness, of reconciliation, of sharing in solidarity."{{Cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/it/angelus/2015/documents/papa-francesco_angelus_20150816.html|title=Angelus, 16 agosto 2015 {{!}} Francesco|website=w2.vatican.va|access-date=2019-09-24}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2013/eucharist-nourishes-sustains-and-should-transform-people-pope-says.cfm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190924180714/https://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2013/eucharist-nourishes-sustains-and-should-transform-people-pope-says.cfm|archive-date=24 September 2019|title=Eucharist nourishes, sustains and should transform people, pope says|website=catholicnews.com|date=3 April 2019|access-date=2019-09-24}} Regarding the relationship between private piety and public life, Francis was the first pontiff to suggest automatic excommunication for the mafia at an outdoor Mass in Calabria: "Those who in their life have gone along the evil ways, as in the case of the mafia, they are not with God, they are excommunicated."{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/21/world/pope-mafia-excommunication/index.html|title=Pope excommunicates Italian Mafia members |publisher=CNN|first=Delia |last=Gallagher |access-date=2017-06-12}}

Francis also called out the "foolishness" of those who would increase the titles and devotions offered to Mary, adding that "She never wanted for herself something that was of her son," but was herself a disciple of Jesus.{{Cite web|title=Pope calls idea of declaring Mary co-redemptrix 'foolishness'|url=https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2019/12/pope-calls-idea-of-declaring-mary-co-redemptrix-foolishness/|access-date=2020-06-21|website=cruxnow.com|date=12 December 2019}}

Francis has said: "The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us... even the atheists. Everyone!... We are created children in the likeness of God... and we all have a duty to do good". He pointed to the Last Judgment scene in the Gospel of Matthew as proof of how God judges: what is done for the poor, the hungry, the indigent, the outcast, those who suffer and are alone, Jesus regards as done to himself (25:37-40). Francis also pointed to the Beatitudes as showing what gives deep happiness, what Catholics should strive to live up to every day: being poor in spirit and meek and humble of heart, merciful and peacemakers, hungering and thirsting for righteousness.{{Cite web|url=https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/audiences/2014/documents/papa-francesco_20140806_udienza-generale.html|title=General Audience of 6 August 2014 {{!}} Francis|website=Vatican|access-date=2017-06-09}} He devoted most of a chapter in Gaudete et exsultate to explaining these Beatitudes as the way to holiness for everyone (63–94).

In response to the secularization of society in the "post-Christian West", Francis has proposed a new approach to evangelization different from his predecessors' emphasis on fidelity to doctrine. He has called for greater attention to Catholic social teaching for which people seek a faith response: economic equality, the rights of migrants, and efforts to counteract global warming.{{Cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/pope-francis-in-christmas-message-says-church-must-adapt-to-post-christian-west-11576930226|title=Pope Francis, in Christmas Message, Says Church Must Adapt to Post-Christian West|last=Rocca|first=Francis X.|website=The Wall Street Journal|date=21 December 2019|language=en-US|access-date=2019-12-24}} But Robert Royal, editor of The Catholic Thing, stated that with regard to these very matters, "the Vatican's misjudgments are all too commonplace" and that "The Vatican currently pursues a steady line of anti-Western criticism, against the alleged xenophobia, rapacious economies, and environmental 'sins' of both Europe and North America".{{Cite web|url=https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2020/02/24/pope-francis-wayward-shepherd/|title=Pope Francis, Wayward Shepherd|date=2020-02-06|website=National Review|language=en-US|access-date=2020-02-07}}

{{Main|Preferential option for the poor}}

"I would like a Church that is poor and is for the poor," Francis said following his election. The pontiff said he had chosen the name Francis in a direct reference to Francis of Assisi, the founder of the Franciscan Order, who was devoted to the poor.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-22551125|title=Pope Francis condemns 'money cult'|date=2013-05-16|access-date=2019-09-24|language=en-GB}} In his first meeting with the media, the new pope explained further: Francis of Assisi was "a man of poverty, a man of peace, a man who loves and safeguards creation... (who) would like a poor church for the poor."{{rp|5}} Richard L. Clarke, Anglican Primate of All Ireland, said that while Francis' "insistence that the poor of the world are Christ's deepest concern" may not be new, his "simplicity of lifestyle... has undoubtedly conveyed a new impetus and purpose for all Christians."{{rp|122}} "Attention for the poor has become the trademark of Francis' pontificate,"{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/26/world/europe/pope-francis-changes-tone-at-the-vatican.html|title=Francis' Humility and Emphasis on the Poor Strike a New Tone at the Vatican|last=Donadio|first=Rachel|date=2013-05-25|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-09-24|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}} the most visible priority of his papacy. He believes that "poverty for us Christians is... a theological category."

Francis' leadership has reflected his conviction that "good leadership looks like Jesus in action", and he has stated: "Jesus made himself poor to walk along the road with us."{{Cite web|url=https://www.loyolapress.com/products/books/history-or-memoir/pope-francis-why-he-leads-the-way-he-leads|title=Pope Francis - Why He Leads the Way He Leads|last=Lowney|first=Chris|website=loyolapress.com|page=69|language=en|access-date=2018-04-21}} For Francis, the church should be "poor and for the poor" with "creative concern and effective cooperation in helping the poor to live with dignity and reaching out to everyone." Without this, according to Francis, all the religious practices and talk of social issues will be just a camouflage.

Francis has expected some to be offended by his words but would help "those who are in thrall to an individualistic, indifferent, and self-centred mentality, to... bring dignity to their presence on this earth."{{Cite web|url=https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/rush-limbaugh-doesnt-get-pope-francis|title=Rush Limbaugh Doesn't Get Pope Francis {{!}} Catholic Answers|website=catholic.com|language=en|access-date=2017-11-24}} He has also said that "it is a well-known fact that current levels of production are sufficient, yet millions of people are still suffering and dying of starvation. This is truly scandalous."{{Cite web|url=http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/178668/icode/|title=FAO - News Article: Pope Francis: Starvation in a world of plenty "scandalous"|website=fao.org|language=en|access-date=2019-09-24}} He additionally said: "God always forgives, but the earth does not... It is painful to see the struggle against hunger and malnutrition hindered by market priorities, the primacy of profit, which reduce foodstuffs to a commodity like any other, subject to speculation and financial speculation in particular... We ask for dignity, not for charity."

Francis has been in the forefront of insisting on the importance of helping refugees.{{Cite news|url=https://cruxnow.com/commentary/2016/11/04/sweden-pope-francis-becomes-immigration-realist/|title=After Sweden, Pope Francis becomes an immigration 'realist'|date=2016-11-04|work=Crux|access-date=2017-06-10|language=en-US}} When visiting the United States border with Mexico, he said: "A person who thinks only about building walls – wherever they may be – and not building bridges, is not Christian."{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/522700341/?terms=Pope%2BFrancis|title=Building bridges much better than building walls|date=19 February 2016|work=The Citizens' Voice|access-date=9 June 2019}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2016/02/19/donald-trump-stares-down-pope-_n_9276220.html|title=Celebrity Hotelier Stares Down The Catholic Church|date=2016-02-19|website=HuffPost|language=en|access-date=2019-09-24}} His later suggestion "to not raise walls but bridges"{{Cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-wall/dont-build-walls-pope-francis-says-idUSKBN15N1ZW|title=Don't build walls, Pope Francis says|date=8 February 2017|work=Reuters|access-date=2017-09-26}} was also widely interpreted by the media as addressed to U.S. President Donald Trump.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/08/pope-francis-walls-bridges-donald-trump|title=Pope Francis appears to criticize Trump's Mexico border wall plan|author=Harriet Sherwood Religion|date=2017-02-08|work=The Guardian|access-date=2017-09-26|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/08/world/asia/pope-francis-rohingya-muslims.html|title=Pope Francis Rebukes Myanmar Over Treatment of Rohingya|last=Freytas-Tamura|first=Kimiko de|date=2017-02-08|work=The New York Times|access-date=2017-09-26|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}} It was later repeated by Francis with regards to Trump's immigration policy.{{Cite news|url=https://www.foxnews.com/world/pope-repeats-bridges-not-walls-after-trump-travel-ban|title=Pope repeats 'bridges not walls' after Trump travel ban|date=2017-02-08|work=Fox News Channel|access-date=2017-09-26|language=en-US}} Francis has said that "to speak properly of our own rights, we need to broaden our perspective and to hear the plea of other peoples and other regions than those of our own country".{{Cite news|url=https://www.crs.org/stories/pope-francis-care-poor|title=Pope Francis Quotes on Poverty, Care for the Poor|last=jryan|date=2014-01-30|work=CRS|access-date=2017-09-05|language=en}} In turning one's back on migrants and refugees, Pope Francis has observed a new "globalization of indifference",{{Cite news|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/04/refugees-pope-francis-lesbos/477870/|title='The Globalization of Indifference': How Pope Francis Sees the Refugee Crisis|last=Friedman|first=Uri|work=The Atlantic|access-date=2017-11-24|language=en-US}} his "disembodied Jesus who demands nothing of us with regard to others."{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ApQrDQAAQBAJ&q=a+disembodied+Jesus+who+demands+nothing+of+us+with+regard+to+others&pg=PT83|title=Always Discerning: An Ignatian Spirituality for the New Millennium|last=Tetlow|first=Joseph A.|date=2016-11-01|publisher=Loyola Press|isbn=978-0-8294-4457-5|language=en}}

Jesuit John Zupez wrote, "In his programmatic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, after just three sentences of introduction, Francis launches into a call for a more expansive Christian spirit: 'The great danger in today's world, pervaded as it is by consumerism, is the desolation and anguish born of a complacent yet covetous heart, the feverish pursuit of frivolous pleasures, and a blunted conscience.' Francis further decries seeking comfort in 'a small circle of close friends' or in religious exercises that 'do not encourage encounter with others'".{{Cite journal|last=Zupez|first=John|date=January 2020|title=Sins of Weakness and Sins of Strength: A More Biblical Moral Theology|url=https://www.theway.org.uk/websubs/591.pdf|journal=The Way|volume=59|page=79}} Francis has also remarked that "if investments in banks fall, it is a tragedy and people say 'what are we going to do?' but if people die of hunger, have nothing to eat or suffer from poor health, that's nothing." Francis further added that a church that is poor and for the poor must fight this mentality.{{Cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-personal-idUSBRE94H0CL20130518|title=Church must help the poorest, not dissect theology, pope says|date=2013-05-18|work=Reuters|access-date=2019-09-24|language=en}}

Inspired by Pope Francis' devotion to the poor, the Vatican-owned Santa Maria church offers beds to homeless migrants in the nave of the church under priceless Renaissance frescoes.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/13/world/pope-francis-at-five-years-bill-weir/index.html|title=Why Pope Francis scares some conservatives|author=Bill Weir|date=13 March 2018 |publisher=CNN|access-date=2019-09-24}} In September 2019, on the Church's 105th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, a new statue was installed in St. Peter's Square for the first time in 400 years. The 20-foot tall bronze sculpture depicts a group of 140, life-size migrants and refugees from various cultural backgrounds and time periods traveling together on a boat. It has been described as "a testament to Pope Francis' enduring concern for the plight of refugees and migrants."{{Cite web|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/angels-unaware-statue-pope-francis_n_5d93bf92e4b0ac3cddb05a56|title=New Vatican Statue Proclaims Pope Francis' Concern For Refugees|last=Kuruvilla|first=Carol|date=2019-10-01|website=HuffPost|language=en|access-date=2019-10-02}}

File:Pope Francis meets Barack Obama.jpg Barack Obama]]

Francis' critique of capitalism is consistent with that of Pope John Paul II in Centesimus annus. Francis, from the start of his papacy, has attacked the harm done to the poor by what he calls the sin of market speculation.{{Cite web|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/pope-francis-says-greed-will-destroy-the-world-9875913.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220507/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/pope-francis-says-greed-will-destroy-the-world-9875913.html |archive-date=7 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Pope Francis says greed will 'destroy the world'|date=2014-11-21|website=The Independent|language=en|access-date=2019-09-24}}{{cbignore}} Back in Buenos Aires, he was known as the "slum bishop" because of his frequent visits to shantytowns. Since becoming pope, Francis has stated that his church should be closer to the poor and has thus been attacking the global economic system based on "a god of money". He also told the United Nations leaders that the organization's future sustainable development goals should stress the "structural causes of poverty and hunger".{{Cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-xpm-2014-05-09-sns-rt-us-pope-un-20140509-story.html|title=U.N. should encourage redistribution of wealth, pope says|last=Pullella|first=Philip|website=Chicago Tribune|date=9 May 2014 |language=en-US|access-date=2019-09-24}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-un-idUSKBN0DP0WU20140509|title=U.N. should encourage redistribution of wealth, pope says|date=2014-05-09|work=Reuters|access-date=2019-09-24|language=en}}

Francis' first apostolic exhortation to the Church, Evangelii gaudium, had what was described as "blistering attacks on income inequality" in the status quo "culture of prosperity" that "deadens us" to the misery of the poor who with "lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move us." One statement that attracted widespread media attention was: "As long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation, and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world's problems or, for that matter, to any problems."{{Cite news |date=2013-11-26 |title=Pope attacks "tyranny" of markets, urges renewal in key document |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-pope-document-idUKBRE9AP0EO20131126 |access-date=2019-09-24 |work=Reuters |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Horn |first=Heather |date=2013-11-26 |title=Pope Francis's Theory of Economics |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/11/pope-franciss-theory-of-economics/281865/ |access-date=2019-09-24 |website=The Atlantic |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Stephen Rex |date=26 November 2013 |title=The unholy dollar: Pope Francis slams 'tyranny' of markets and 'idolatry of money' |url=https://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/pope-francis-slams-tyranny-markets-idolatry-money-article-1.1529293 |access-date=2019-09-24 |website=Daily News |location=New York}}

An Italian journalist found that Francis' comments on capitalism in Evangelii gaudium "hit the mark", thus provoking a host of prominent spokespersons for capitalism. The journalist added: "Pope Francis is not afraid to proclaim to the world the limits, obvious to everyone after the 2008 financial debacle (in the United States), of an economic model that, left to itself, is likely to overwhelm the world."{{Cite news |title=PAPA/ Borghesi: lo schiaffo di Francesco ai catto-capitalisti Usa |url=http://www.ilsussidiario.net/News/Cultura/2014/1/3/PAPA-Borghesi-lo-schiaffo-di-Francesco-ai-catto-capitalisti-Usa/455907/ |access-date=2018-04-06 |work=Il Sussidiario.net}} In other words, Francis was looking for long-term intervention by political entities for the improvement of economic systems, not for the overthrow of these systems; his long-range view has been consistent with church tradition, with recent pontiffs,{{Cite book |last1=Tornielli |first1=Andrea |title=This Economy Kills: Pope Francis on Capitalism and Social Justice |last2=Galeazzi |first2=Giacomo |date=2015-08-17 |publisher=Liturgical Press |isbn=978-0-8146-4725-7 |language=en}}{{rp|ii}} and with his prioritizing of "time over space".{{rp|157}}

Francis has "put the poor, the problems of inequality and structural injustice, at the heart of the church's mission, and therefore at the heart of Christian spirituality and living."{{rp|92}} Addressing foreign ambassadors at the Vatican in 2013, Francis called for more government controls over their economies, describing as a new "golden calf" the worship of money, in an economy that fails to provide for the common good.{{Cite web|url=https://www.theage.com.au/world/pope-blames-tyranny-of-capitalism-for-making-people-miserable-20130517-2jru9.html|title=Pope blames tyranny of capitalism for making people miserable|last=Squires|first=Nick|date=2013-05-17|website=The Age|language=en|access-date=2019-09-24}} Francis has also said that wealth from financial and commodities speculation is scandalous and compromised the poor's access to food. He calls inequality "the root of all social ills" and places on economic and government leaders the responsibility to address its structural causes and to assure all citizens access to education, dignified work, and healthcare. He finds this essential to solving any of the world's problems.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/may/17/pope-francis-attacks-cult-money|title=Pope Francis attacks 'cult of money' in reform call|last=Davies|first=Lizzy|date=2013-05-16|work=The Guardian|access-date=2017-06-09|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}

Francis has additionally criticized the theory of trickle-down economics that claims that economic growth from capitalism leads to widespread prosperity, a theory that, at times, has been maintained by the Republican Party in the United States.{{Cite news|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/11/11/can-trump-make-trickle-down-economics-work/93586144/|title=Can Trump make 'trickle-down' economics work?|work=USA Today|access-date=2017-06-14|language=en}} Francis also said some people "continue to defend trickle-down theories", a belief that "has never been confirmed by the facts." He characterized this as sacralizing the economic system with a "crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power."

Author Elisabetta Piqué, a close friend of Francis, wrote: "Francis wants to break down the wall between the North and South of the world... (in) the new 'cold war' that he must win over selfishness." After hosting successful negotiations for a reconciliation between Cuba and the United States, Francis was praised by President Obama for showing "the importance of pursuing the world as it should be, rather than simply settling for the world as it is."{{Cite news |last=Warnica |first=Richard |date=20 December 2014 |title=Pope's peace movement a victory for the Vatican |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/498780928/?terms=Pope%2BFrancis |access-date=9 June 2019 |work=Leader-Post}} President Raúl Castro, a product of Jesuit education, said the teachings of Pope Francis had both persuaded him to take a softer line on religion and to perhaps return to the Catholic Church. He said: "If the Pope continues to speak like this, sooner or later I will start praying again and I will return to the Catholic Church – and I'm not saying this jokingly."{{Cite web |last=McLaughlin |first=Eliott C. |date=10 May 2015 |title=After Pope Francis confab, Raul Castro may pray again |url=https://www.cnn.com/2015/05/10/europe/italy-raul-castro-pope-francis-meeting/index.html |access-date=2019-09-24 |publisher=CNN}}

In his third encyclical, Fratelli tutti, Francis strongly condemned neoliberal orthodoxy in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. He asserted that "the marketplace, by itself, cannot resolve every problem, however much we are asked to believe this dogma of neoliberal faith" and that the pandemic exposed "a fragmentation that made it more difficult to resolve problems that affect us all". He added that "anyone who thinks that the only lesson to be learned was the need to improve what we were already doing, or to refine existing systems and regulations, is denying reality."{{cite news |last=Rapier |first=Graham |date=5 October 2020 |title=Pope Francis issues blistering rebuke of capitalism – and says the coronavirus pandemic proves 'not everything can be resolved by market freedom' |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/pope-francis-criticizes-capitalism-coronavirus-free-markets-equality-2020-10 |access-date=6 October 2020 |work=Business Insider}} Francis continues to dialogue with the umbrella organization Guardians of Inclusive Capitalism, which has represented companies with over $2.1 trillion in market capitalization and 200 million workers.{{Cite web |date=9 December 2020 |title=Big business gets its wings as leaders from major U.S. companies partner with Pope Francis |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/big-business-gets-its-wings-leaders-major-u-s-companies-n1250473 |access-date=2020-12-09 |publisher=NBC News |language=en}}{{update inline|date=July 2024}}

In January 2024, during a meeting with the Dialop Transversal dialogue project, Francis encouraged Christians and socialists to work together to build a better world and combat the "triple scourge" of corruption, lawlessness, and abuse of power. He also emphasized that "civilization is measured" by the way the vulnerable—the poor, unemployed, homeless, immigrants, and the exploited—are treated.{{cite news |last=Cernuzio |first=Salvatore |date=January 10, 2024 |title=Pope encourages Marxists and Christians to fight corruption, uphold rule-of-law |url=https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2024-01/marxists-and-christians-to-fight-together-corruption-illegality.html |access-date=January 20, 2024 |work=Vatican News |location=}}

While Christian ethics has generally taught that the earth's richness is meant for the common good, Francis has been called a Marxist for his demand for more equality. Rush Limbaugh, a conservative commentator in the United States, called the pope's message "pure Marxism". The billionaire Kenneth Langone warned Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan that such remarks could doom the financial support needed to restore St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York.

Responding in general to those who have called him a Marxist, Francis said that "Marxist ideology is wrong. But I have met many Marxists in my life who are good people, so I don't feel offended...There is nothing in the exhortation that cannot be found in the social doctrine of the church."{{cite news |url= https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/15/pope-francis-defends-criticism-of-capitalism-not-marxist|title= Pope says he is not a Marxist, but defends criticism of capitalism|first= Lizzy|last= Davies |date= 15 December 2013|newspaper= The Guardian|access-date=28 May 2015}} Furthermore, in 2014, Francis said: "The communists have stolen our flag. The flag of the poor is Christian. Poverty is at the center of the Gospel", whereas communism came "twenty centuries later".{{Cite web | last = Pullella | first = Philip |url=http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2014/06/29/pope-francis-says-communists-are-closet-christians-whove-stolen-our-flag/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140707010649/http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2014/06/29/pope-francis-says-communists-are-closet-christians-whove-stolen-our-flag/|archive-date=7 July 2014|title=Pope Francis: Communists 'stole' the flag of Christianity|website=Reuters Edition International|language=en|access-date=2020-12-27}}

Additionally, Francis took the occasion of his address to the U.S. Congress in 2015 to acknowledge the benefits of capitalism and to clarify that he did not advocate for Marxism.{{Cite news |date=2016-09-21 |title=Pope Francis's praise of capitalism a surprise on US trip |url=https://cruxnow.com/commentary/2016/09/21/pope-franciss-praise-capitalism-surprise-us-trip/ |access-date=2018-04-04 |work=Crux |language=en-US}} Francis instead suggested that Jesus can be found in others' faces, voices, and pleas that constantly call us to live in fraternity.

{{See also|Christian views on environmentalism|Sustainability#Religious communities|Religion and environmentalism}}

Pope Francis, in his encyclical Laudato si' (Praise be to you) of May 2015, used the highest level of papal teaching to draw attention to "our sin" of destroying the natural environment. In it, Francis called for a "broad cultural revolution" among all peoples to confront the environmental crisis.

Tara Isabella Burton of The Atlantic saw as a change of emphasis in church teaching, toward reconciliation with the created world in a way that was "radically and profoundly, pro-life".{{Cite web |last=Burton |first=Tara Isabella |date=2014-07-11 |title=Pope Francis's Radical Environmentalism |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/07/pope-franciss-radical-rethinking-of-environmentalism/374300/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407084156/https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/07/pope-franciss-radical-rethinking-of-environmentalism/374300/ |archive-date=7 April 2022 |access-date=2019-09-24 |website=The Atlantic |language=en-US}} Columnist James Martin described the encyclical as "revolutionary", "a systematic overview of the crisis from a religious point of view".{{Cite web |url=https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2015/06/18/top-ten-takeaways-laudato-si |title=Top Ten Takeaways from Laudato Si |date=2015-06-18 |website=America Magazine |language=en |access-date=2019-09-24}} The New York Times summarized that "Francis reiterated the established science that burning fossil fuels are warming the planet, said the impact threatened the world's poor, and called for government policies to cut fossil fuel use."{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/17/us/politics/popes-views-press-gop-on-climate-change.html|title=Pope's Views on Climate Change Add Pressure to Catholic Candidates|last=Davenport|first=Coral|date=2015-06-16|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-09-24|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}

As he prepared for the encyclical, Francis had sponsored a Pontifical Academy of Sciences summit meeting in April 2015 that focused on the relationships connecting poverty, economic development, and climate change. The meeting included presentations and discussions by scientists, religious leaders, and economists. The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, who urged world leaders to approve a climate-change accord in Paris at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in December 2015, delivered the keynote address.{{cite news|last=Kirchgaessner|first=Stephanie|date=28 April 2015|title=Vatican official calls for moral awakening on global warming|newspaper=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/apr/28/vatican-climate-change-summit-to-highlight-moral-duty-for-action|access-date=18 June 2015}} Then, in June 2019, in a meeting at the Vatican which climatologist Hans Joachim Schellnhuber described as one of the most significant of his 30-year career, Francis "convinced big oil CEOs to alter their message on climate change." This meeting included CEOs of ExxonMobil, BP, Royal Dutch Shell, and Chevron who then pledged to avert what Francis called "a climate emergency" that risked "perpetrating a brutal act of injustice towards the poor and future generations." Francis "stressed the need for a radical energy transition to save our common home." The CEOs then pledged to "advance the energy transition... while minimizing the costs to vulnerable communities."{{Cite web|url=https://fortune.com/2019/06/17/pope-franci-energy-ceos-change-message-climate-change/|title=Pope Francis Got These Big Oil CEOs to Fight Global Warming|website=Fortune|language=en|access-date=2019-09-24}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/georgkell/2019/06/15/pope-francis-in-dialogue-with-oil-and-investors/|title=Pope Francis in Dialogue With Big Oil And Investors|last=Kell|first=Georg|website=Forbes|language=en|access-date=2019-09-24}}

In 2019, Francis stated that ecocide was a sin and should be made "a fifth category of crimes against peace, which should be recognised as such by the international community."{{Cite web |date=2020-09-17 |title=Pope Supports Classifying 'Ecocide' as an International Crime |url=https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/pope-supports-classifying-ecocide-as-an-international-crime/ |access-date=2023-06-16 |website=National Review |language=en-US}}{{Cite news |date=2020-09-16 |title=This movement wants to make harming the planet an international crime |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/climate-academy/2020/sep/16/ecocide-environment-destruction-international-crime |access-date=2023-06-16 |issn=0261-3077}}

In 2021, it was revealed that starting in 2022, the Pope would use an electric popemobile modeled after the Fisker Ocean SUV.{{cite news |url=https://www.reuters.com/technology/pope-francis-get-first-electric-popemobile-us-firm-fisker-2021-05-21/ |title=Pope Francis to get first electric popemobile from U.S. firm Fisker |publisher=Reuters |date=May 21, 2021 |access-date=May 25, 2021}}{{cite news|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/business/autos/pope-francis-get-all-electric-popemobile-ev-startup-fisker-n1268224|title=Pope Francis to get all-electric popemobile from EV startup Fisker|first=Paul A.|last=Eisenstein|publisher=NBC News|date=21 May 2021|access-date=25 May 2021}} The environment-friendly popemobile was to be designed and constructed by the California-based EV start-up company Fisker Inc.{{update inline|date=July 2024}}

At the beginning of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, in Glasgow, Scotland, which Francis did not attend, he instead sent Cardinal Pietro Parolin. Francis later said of the summit: "May this encounter yield efficient answers offering concrete hope to future generations."{{cite news |last1=AP |title=Pope Francis is asking people to pray for the Earth as U.N. climate talks begin |url=https://www.npr.org/2021/10/31/1050927699/pope-francis-climate-cop26 |access-date=1 November 2021 |agency=NPR.org |date=1 November 2021|author1-link=Associated Press }} He added that Christians should pray for the "cry of the Earth."

In May 2024, at a meeting of the States General on Natality, Francis encouraged young people to go against the trend and have children, saying: "The problem with our world is not children being born. It's selfishness, consumerism, individualism, which render people complacent, alone, and unhappy." He disagreed with the idea of population control to avoid economic, environmental, and health crises, saying human life is not a problem but a gift.{{cite web | url=https://religionnews.com/2024/05/10/have-the-courage-to-have-children-despite-climate-change-and-wars-pope-francis-says/ | title=Have the courage to have children despite climate change and wars, Pope Francis says | date=10 May 2024 }} The next month, he issued an apostolic letter titled Fratello sole ("Brother sun", referring to Saint Francis' Canticle of the Sun), ordering the Vatican to construct an agrivoltaics facility on its land holdings on the outskirts of Rome, as a gesture of the Church towards the environmental movement.{{cite web | title=Apostolic Letter issued "Motu Proprio" "Fratello Sole" by the Supreme Pontiff Francis (21 June 2024)|language=English |publisher=Dicasterio per la Comunicazione |website=Vatican | date=June 21, 2024 | url=https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/motu_proprio/documents/20240621-fratello-sole.html | access-date=April 28, 2025}}

Francis has called mercy "the keystone of the life of faith" by which people "give visibility to the Resurrection of Jesus."{{Cite web|url=https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/35886/mercy-is-key-to-the-life-of-faith-pope-francis-says|title=Mercy is key to the life of faith, Pope Francis says|last=Harris|first=Elise|agency=Catholic News Agency|language=en|access-date=2019-09-24}} In opening the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy year, Francis spoke of how it "wrongs God when we speak of sins being punished by judgment before we speak of their being forgiven by God's mercy.{{Cite web|url=https://cruxnow.com/church/2015/12/08/opening-the-holy-year-francis-says-mercy-always-trumps-judgment/|title=Opening the Holy Year, Francis says mercy always trumps judgment|date=2015-12-08|website=Crux|language=en-CA|access-date=2019-09-24}}

Cardinal Walter Kasper has called mercy "the key word of his pontificate... (while) Scholastic theology has neglected this topic and turned it into a mere subordinate theme of justice."{{rp|31–32}} Francis has described mercy as "the very substance of the Gospel of Jesus" and asked theologians to reflect this in their work. In his encyclical on holiness for everyone, Gaudete et exsultate, mercy was the focal theme: "What is Pope Francis' overall summary of holiness? It's based on the Beatitudes: 'Seeing and acting with mercy'."{{Cite news|url=https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2018/04/09/top-five-takeaways-gaudete-et-exsultate|title=Top Five Takeaways from 'Gaudete et Exsultate'|date=2018-04-09|work=America Magazine|access-date=2018-04-14|language=en}} "Francis' watchword is mercy, but mercy adheres, first, not in alterations of doctrine but in the new way that Catholics are invited to think of doctrine," in pastoral practice and conformity with what "Jesus wants – a Church attentive to the goodness which the Holy Spirit sows in the midst of human weakness."{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/new-morality-of-pope-francis-joy-of-love|title=The New Morality of Pope Francis|date=2016-04-08|magazine=The New Yorker|access-date=2017-06-12}} Francis emphasized this by washing the feet of prisoners{{Cite news |last=Esteves |first=Junno Arocho |date=13 April 2017 |url=http://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2017/pope-washes-feet-of-12-prison-inmates-at-holy-thursday-mass.cfm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170420030100/http://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2017/pope-washes-feet-of-12-prison-inmates-at-holy-thursday-mass.cfm |archive-date=20 April 2017 |title=Pope washes feet of 12 prison inmates at Holy Thursday Mass |work=Catholic News Service |language=en |access-date=2017-06-12}} which was, for some, people a shocking gesture.{{Cite news|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/03/30/popes-upsets-traditionalists/2037463/|title=Pope's foot-wash a final straw for traditionalists|work=USA Today|access-date=2018-04-20|language=en}}

In its spirit of aggiornamento, Vatican II perceived a need for making the manuals of moral theology more relevant toward peoples' real-life situations, and, as Cardinal Montini pointed out, toward "audacious change" that "subordinated law to charity."{{Cite web|title=Aggiornamento of Vatican II|url=http://vatican2voice.org/3butlerwrites/aggiorna.htm|access-date=2019-09-24|website=vatican2voice.org}} Francis, in turn, has said that "Christian morality is not a form of stoicism, or self-denial, or merely a practical philosophy, or a catalogue of sins and faults. Before all else, the Gospel invites us to respond to the God of love who saves us, to see God in others, and to go forth from ourselves to seek the good of others."{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6_bjCQAAQBAJ&q=Christian+morality+is+not+a+form+of+stoicism+francis&pg=PA50|title=The Preaching of Pope Francis: Missionary Discipleship and the Ministry of the Word|last=Heille|first=Gregory|date=2015-02-19|publisher=Liturgical Press|isbn=978-0-8146-4927-5|page=50|language=en}}

Saint Thomas Aquinas pointed out that the precepts which Christ and the apostles gave to the people of God "are very few". Citing Saint Augustine, he noted that the precepts subsequently enjoined by the Church should be insisted upon with moderation "so as not to burden the lives of the faithful" and make our religion a form of servitude, whereas "God's mercy has willed that we should be free".Clemens Sedmak, A Church of the Poor: Pope Francis and the Transformation of Orthodoxy, (New York: Orbis, 2016).

Francis also warned against "codification of the faith in rules and regulations, as the scribes, the Pharisees, the doctors of the law did in the time of Jesus. To us, everything will be clear and set in order, but the faithful and those in search will still hunger and thirst for God." He went on to describe the Church as a field hospital where people should come to know God's warmth and closeness to them,{{Cite web|url=https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2014/september/documents/papa-francesco_20140919_nuova-evangelizzazione.html|title=To participants in the Meeting sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization |date=19 September 2014 |author=Pope Francis |website=Vatican |access-date=2017-06-10}} where the shepherds have "the smell of the sheep". The last statement went viral{{Cite web|url=https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2017/06/16/pope-wants-priests-shepherds-encounter-flocks/|title=Shepherd-priests must encounter flock|website=cruxnow.com|date=16 June 2017 |access-date=2019-09-24}}{{Cite web|url=http://aleteia.org/2015/12/14/how-to-help-priests-smell-like-their-sheep/|title=How to Help Priests Smell Like Their Sheep|last=Hattrup|first=Kathleen N.|date=2015-12-14|website=Aleteia – Catholic Spirituality, Lifestyle, World News, and Culture|language=en|access-date=2019-09-24}}{{Citation|title=The Smell of the Sheep|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeB0v_Ck-PM|language=en|access-date=2019-09-24}} and became the title of the book With the Smell of the Sheep: Pope Francis Speaks to Priests, Bishops, and Other Shepherds in which by "warning against the sins of 'self-referentiality', clericalism, careerism, and worldliness, [Francis] stresses the importance of mercy."{{Cite web|url=https://www.amazon.com/Smell-Sheep-Francis-Priests-Shephards-ebook/dp/B01N9TY2DW|title=Smell of the Sheep|website=Amazon |access-date=2019-09-24}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.thecatholictelegraph.com/pope-francis-priests-should-be-shepherds-living-with-the-smell-of-the-sheep/13439|title=Pope Francis: Priests should be 'shepherds living with the smell of the sheep'|last=The Telegraph|first=The Catholic|website=Catholic Telegraph|date=28 March 2013 |language=en-US|access-date=2019-09-24}}

The remark of "the smell of the sheep," however, brought a negative critique from the conservative media which asked: "For the 'field hospital' Church, who are the gatekeepers?... a Roman-style pantheon of national conferences of bishops, or maybe only a schismatic and flat 'congregational theocracy' more like Islam? The 'smell of the sheep' is one thing; the smell of wolves in sheep's clothing would be another."{{Cite web|url=https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2018/05/17/lay-evangelization-and-the-smell-of-the-sheep/|title=Lay Evangelization and the 'smell of the sheep'|last=Beaulieu|first=Peter D.|website=catholicworldreport.com|language=en-US|access-date=2019-09-24}}

{{See also|Amoris laetitia|Pope Francis and LGBT topics}}

Argentinian Archbishop Víctor Fernández has explained controversies that have arisen over Francis' words: "The problem is that the fanatics end up converting some principles into a lifelong battle and deliberately discuss only those issues... There are other issues that are non-negotiable: love your neighbor, do justice to the oppressed..."{{rp|33,34}} The Vatican's communications adviser told the Associated Press: "What [Francis] is saying is 'we've spent a lot of time talking about the boundaries. We've spent a lot of time talking about what is sin and what's not. Now let's move on. Let's talk about mercy. Let's talk about love.'" Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who is seen by some as Ireland's most reform-minded Catholic leader, said that Francis' comments would be tough for the church to put into action because there has been a tendency to get "trapped" into the right and wrong, white and black, of Catholic teaching.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pope-francis-denounces-abortion-after-decrying-churchs-focus-on-rules/|title=Pope Francis denounces abortion after decrying church's focus on rules|work=CBS News|date=20 September 2013 |language=en-US|access-date=2019-09-24}}

The scholastic-philosophical approach to morality, stemming largely from Thomas Aquinas, had been used during the papacy of John Paul II to give attention to the "intrinsic evil" of abortion. Francis "finds in the Bible an alternative tradition, touched on in the Second Vatican Council... which takes as its subject 'sins of strength', including the failure to take personal responsibility for the state of the wider world."{{Cite web|url=https://www.theway.org.uk/January%202020.shtml|title=The Way: 59, 1|last=Zupez|first=John|date=January 2020|website=theway.org.uk|others=Sins of Weakness and Sins of Strength|access-date=2020-02-07}} M. Cathleen Kaveny wrote in America that she believes it is incorrect to apply the term "intrinsic evil" to determine the gravity of an evil, nor should intrinsic evils be so narrowly delimited.{{Cite news|url=https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/673/article/intrinsic-evil-and-political-responsibility|title=Intrinsic Evil and Political Responsibility: Is the concept of intrinsic evil helpful to the Catholic voter?|date=2008-10-27|work=America Magazine|access-date=2017-09-29|language=en}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.ncronline.org/news/politics/editorial-intrinsically-evil-canard-deception|title=Editorial: 'Intrinsically evil' canard is a deception|date=2012-10-30|work=National Catholic Reporter|access-date=2017-09-30|language=en}} In 2013, Massimo Faggioli wrote: "The Catholicism of movement 'to the margins' announced by Pope Francis also means trying to take leave of the political culture of neoconservative and neoliberal Catholicism... a return to a Catholicism that is in search of 'common ground', such as that of the Cardinal of Chicago Joseph Bernardin." This return has been seen as a departure from the neoconservatism among Catholics in the United States that had reigned since the Reagan era, based on an "anti-abortion stance that was isolated from the 'social question'" of market regulation,{{Cite book|title=Pope Francis: Tradition in Transition|last=Faggioli|first=Massimo|date=2015-05-05|publisher=Paulist Press|isbn=978-0-8091-4892-9|edition= Translation|location=New York|language=en}}{{rp|81}} or other basic rights.{{Cite magazine|title=Pope Francis Sends Strong Message to U.S. Catholics After George Floyd's Death|url=https://time.com/5851155/pope-francis-george-floyd-black-lives-matter-protest/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200610201558/https://time.com/5851155/pope-francis-george-floyd-black-lives-matter-protest/|archive-date=10 June 2020|access-date=2020-06-14|magazine=Time|language=en}}

At the same time, while Francis may be seen as a "radical reformer", he also nonetheless believes that "the task of the papacy is the preservation of the doctrine handed down by Jesus Christ." This means preserving the Church's doctrine, as on abortion and artificial contraception, where he hasn't respond to specific misinterpretations of his words but instead uses later opportunities to clarify his orthodoxy.{{rp|385–6}} Additionally, Francis pointed out that "Paul VI himself, in the end, urged confessors to be very merciful and pay attention to concrete situations... digging deep and making sure that pastoral care takes into account situations and what it is possible for persons to do."{{Cite web|url=http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1350783bdc4.html|title=Francis, the Pope of "Humanae Vitae"|website=chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it|access-date=2019-11-30}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/new-morality-of-pope-francis-joy-of-love|title=The New Morality of Pope Francis|last=Carroll|first=James|magazine=The New Yorker|date=2016-04-08|access-date=2019-11-30|language=en|issn=0028-792X}}

Francis has criticized those homilies "which should be kerygmatic but end up speaking about everything that has a connection with sex... whether or not to participate in a demonstration against a draft law in favor of the use of condoms." He added: "We end up forgetting the treasure of Jesus alive, the treasure of the Holy Spirit present in our hearts, the treasure of a project of Christian life that has many implications that go much further than mere sexual questions."{{cite web|url=http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1350492bdc4.html|title=Few Surprises. Francis Is Just That Way|last=Magister|first=Sandro|date=3 April 2013|website=Chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it|language=en|access-date=30 June 2017}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.foxnews.com/world/pope-francis-church-cannot-be-obsessed-with-gays-abortion-ban|title=Pope Francis: Church Cannot Be 'Obsessed' With Gays, Abortion Ban|date=2016-11-29|work=Fox News Channel|language=en-US|access-date=2019-09-24}} In his view, the church should not be "obsessed' with gays, abortion and birth control."{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/20/world/europe/pope-bluntly-faults-churchs-focus-on-gays-and-abortion.html|title=Pope Says Church Is 'Obsessed' With Gays, Abortion and Birth Control|last=Goodstein|first=Laurie|date=2013-09-19|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-09-24|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}

{{Blockquote|text=We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage, and the use of contraceptive methods... The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent. The church's pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently. Proclamation in a missionary style focuses on the essentials, on the necessary things: this is also what fascinates and attracts more, what makes the heart burn, as it did for the disciples at Emmaus. We have to find a new balance; otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel. The proposal of the Gospel must be more simple, profound, radiant. It is from this proposition that the moral consequences then flow.}}

This was contrasted with the priorities of Francis' predecessors, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, who saw doctrine as the paramount guide for clergy. Clergy in the United States had already shown dismay that Francis had not emphasized the Church's teaching on abortion, contraception, and homosexuality. Instead, Francis added: "This Church with which we should be thinking is the home of all, not a small chapel that can hold only a small group of selected people. We must not reduce the bosom of the universal Church to a nest protecting our mediocrity."{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-24166434|title=Pope: Church 'must heal wounds'|date=2013-09-19|access-date=2019-09-25|language=en-GB}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2013/09/20139202523642396.html|title=Pope urges more understanding for gays|publisher=Al Jazeera|access-date=2019-09-25}}

In naming Francis its "Person of the Year", The Advocate pointed out his "stark change in rhetoric from his two predecessors". It is a well-known fact that the Church's teaching on artificial contraception, in Humanae vitae, has been very poorly received in the living tradition.Joseph A. Komonchak. "Humanae vitae and Its Reception: Ecclesiological Reflections", in Theological Studies, 39.2 (1978) 221-257. Francis has spoken freely to reporters on the plane during his travels, and while defending natural family planning, he commented: "Some people think that in order to be good Catholics we have to breed like rabbits, right?"{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30890989|title=No need to breed like rabbits - Pope|date=2015-01-19|access-date=2019-09-25|language=en-GB}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-airplane-idUSKBN0KS1WY20150119|title=Pope says birth control ban doesn't mean breed 'like rabbits'|date=2015-01-19|work=Reuters|access-date=2019-09-25|language=en}}

In the Extraordinary General Assembly of Bishops in 2014, in preparation for the Synod on the Family of 2015, Francis recommended "true spiritual discernment... to give answers to the many discouragements that surround and suffocate families." The survey Francis called for before the synod revealed that in Germany "huge percentages of the people (as many as 97% on some questions) had been ignoring the church's teachings in these areas (related to sexuality, remarriage, birth control...)."{{Cite book|title=Inside the Jesuits: How Pope Francis Is Changing the Church and the World|last=Kaiser|first=Robert Blair|date=2014-05-23|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers|isbn=978-1-4422-2901-3|location=Lanham u.a.|page=201|language=en}}

In the 2015 Synod, the question of Communion for divorced Catholics living in a civil marriage grew heated. Francis' successor to the archiepiscopal office in Argentina wrote, of him: "He recommends that we never stop reading the words of St. Ambrose and St. Cyril of Alexandria... which invite us to not be rigid in administration of the Eucharist."{{Cite book|title=The Francis project: where he wants to take the church|last1=Fernández|first1=Víctor M|last2=Rodari|first2=Paolo|date=2016|publisher=Paulist Press |isbn=978-0-8091-4963-6|language=en|oclc = 934627692}}{{rp|53}} As archbishop, Francis had said Mass among the poor of Buenos Aires and "in a shanty town 90 percent of your congregation are single or divorced. You have to learn to deal with that. Communion for the divorced and remarried is not an issue. Everyone takes Communion."{{rp|88}} "He is always finding traces of God in everyone... especially those we misguidedly judge to be unworthy of sitting at the table of the Lord."{{rp|85}} Francis has led people "to make room for the marginalized in the life of the local church... to lead by example and to encourage people who are struggling."{{rp|180}} This is the pope who had the task of writing Amoris laetitia, a summation of the synods on the family.

Francis followed the line of progressives at the synod and suggested that bishops must move church practice closer to the real-life situations, to accompany people in "discernment" and an examination of conscience, "to make room for the consciences of the faithful, who very often respond as best they can to the Gospel amid their limitations, and are capable of carrying out their own discernment in complex situations." He wrote that beyond that, he left the matter to the local bishops' conferences, in the spirit of collegiality that he had been promoting.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/09/world/europe/rather-than-rules-popes-document-gives-license-to-adapt.html|title=Rather Than Rules, Pope's Document Gives License to Adapt|last=Yardley|first=Jim|date=2016-04-08|work=The New York Times|access-date=2017-06-10|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}} The bishops in Germany had been debating this issue for over a decade; Francis sided with the majority, which included Cardinal Walter Kasper, against those who were led by Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller. Francis strengthened the hand of those German bishops who, along with Kasper, wrote that "Catholics who have been remarried under civil law after a divorce are invited to go to church, participate in their lives, and mature as living members of the church," offering "no general rule", not insisting that priests give Communion to divorced people but calling for "differentiated solutions, which are appropriate to the individual case."{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-pope-conservatives-2017-story.html|title=Conservative opposition to Pope Francis spurs talk of a schism in the Catholic Church|date=2017-04-17|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US|access-date=2019-09-24}} A similar directive had been given by the bishops' conferences in Argentina and in Malta.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/01/world/europe/germany-divorced-catholics-communion-pope-francis.html|title=German Bishops Open Way to Communion for Divorced Catholics|last=Chan|first=Sewell|date=2017-02-01|work=The New York Times|access-date=2017-06-10|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}

A 25-page letter, accusing Francis of spreading heresy through Amoris laetitia, bore 62 signatures from Catholics such as clergy and religious, but Richard Gaillardetz of Boston College stated that all the signatories were "marginal figures".{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/25/the-guardian-view-on-heresy-is-the-pope-catholic|title=The Guardian view on heresy: is the pope Catholic? {{!}} Editorial|last=Editorial|date=2017-09-25|work=The Guardian|access-date=2017-10-01|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.ncronline.org/news/vatican/scholars-say-correction-francis-heresy-marked-hypocrisy-lack-signatories|title=Scholars say correction of Francis for 'heresy' marked by hypocrisy, lack of signatories|date=2017-09-25|work=National Catholic Reporter|access-date=2017-10-01|language=en}} In May 2019, a coalition of conservative Catholic clergy and academics cited Francis for many counts of heresy, among which was allowing divorced Catholics to receive communion.{{Cite web|url=https://thehill.com/policy/international/441558-catholic-conservatives-say-pope-francis-is-a-heretic-causing-one-of-the|title=Conservative Catholics accuse Pope Francis of heresy|last=Budryk|first=Zack|date=2019-05-01|website=The Hill|language=en|access-date=2019-09-24}} Cardinal Gerhard Müller, dismissed by Francis as the Vatican's doctrinal chief,{{Cite web|url=http://www.ncregister.com/blog/edward-pentin/cardinal-mueller-to-be-dismissed|title=Pope Francis Appoints Spanish Jesuit Ladaria to Succeed Cardinal Müller|website=National Catholic Register|date=30 June 2017 |access-date=2019-09-24}} came out in February 2019 with what the media described as "a clear manifestation of conservative criticism of Francis' emphasis on mercy and accompaniment versus a focus on repeating Catholic morals and doctrine during the previous two papacies."{{Cite web|url=https://apnews.com/d6311813685340e1a4ce9bc9c46a8d3f|title=Vatican ex-doctrine chief pens manifesto amid pope criticism|last=Winfield|first=Nicole|date=2019-02-09|website=AP NEWS|access-date=2019-09-24}}

Thomas J. Reese has defended Francis' changes as consistent with other cases where the understanding of Catholics preceded change in church teaching, citing the cases of usury, heliocentrism, and religious freedom. In July 2020, Cardinal Angelo Scola, who came in second to Francis in the 2013 papal election, also defended Francis' papacy, saying: "Pope Francis seeks to shake up consciences by calling into question consolidated habits and customs in the church, each time raising the bar, so to speak... I truly consider admirable and moving the extraordinary capacity of Pope Francis to make himself close to everyone, and especially to the excluded."{{Cite web|date=2020-07-21|title=Cardinal Scola calls out Pope Francis' critics: 'The pope is the pope'|url=https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2020/07/21/cardinal-scola-calls-out-pope-francis-critics-pope-pope|access-date=2020-07-22|website=America Magazine|language=en}}

In a book of his own reflections, Francis has written: "Scholars of the law represent the principle opposition to Jesus; they challenge him in the name of doctrine."{{Cite book|title=The Name of God Is Mercy|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780399588631|url-access=registration|last=Francis|first=Pope|date=2016-01-12|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-0-399-58863-1|edition= Translation |location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780399588631/page/91 91]–92|language=en|translator-last=Stransky|translator-first=Oonagh}} The fear of losing "the sheep who are already safely inside the pen... (is) the logic of the scholars of the law... The logic of God... welcomes, embraces, and transfigures evil into good... He teaches us what to do, which logic to follow, when faced with people who suffer physically and spiritually."

Pope Francis simplified the process for declaring matrimonial nullity.[http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2015/09/08/pope_francis_reforms_church_law_in_marital_nullity_trials/1170336 Pope Francis reforms Church law in marital nullity trials], Vatican Radio. Retrieved 8 September 2015

Just six months into his papacy, Francis invited Gustavo Gutiérrez to meet with him.{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/liberation-theology-finds-new-welcome-in-pope-francis-vatican/2013/09/09/5265002e-198a-11e3-80ac-96205cacb45a_story.html|title=Liberation theology finds new welcome in Pope Francis' Vatican|last=Service|first=Alessandro Speciale{{!}} Religion News|date=2013-09-09|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=2019-09-24|language=en-US|issn=0190-8286}} They had shared a common teacher in {{Interlanguage link|Lucio Gera|lt=|es|Lucio Gera|WD=}}. Gutiérrez, considered to be one of the most outstanding proponents of liberation theology,{{cite journal |author-last=Løland |author-first=Ole Jakob |date=July 2021 |title=The Solved Conflict: Pope Francis and Liberation Theology |url=https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s41603-021-00137-3.pdf |editor-last=Usarski |editor-first=Frank |journal=International Journal of Latin American Religions |volume=5 |issue=2 |location=Berlin |publisher=Springer Nature |pages=287–314 |doi=10.1007/s41603-021-00137-3 |doi-access=free |issn=2509-9957 |eissn=2509-9965}} had attended a conference in Petrópolis in 1964 that is considered to have given birth to liberation theology. At that conference, Gera spoke on "The Meaning of the Christian Message in the Midst of Poverty and Oppression". Gera had also been a teacher of Bergoglio who, as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, showed his esteem for Gera by allowing him to be buried in the crypt of the cathedral.{{rp|16}} In addition to Gera, the other great exponent of liberation theology has been the priest Rafael Tello. This theologian, from an original reading of Saint Thomas Aquinas, thought about the originality of Latin American popular Christianity and put the center on the option for the poor. Bergoglio highly valued his proposal as he explicitly stated in 2012 when presenting a book on his thinking.{{Cite book|title=La teología de la pastoral popular de Rafael Tello|date=22 May 2016|publisher=Enrique Bianchi |url=https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01G2CP2WK|access-date=2020-10-28}}{{Cite book|last=Bianchi|first=Enrique Ciro|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bZ_FswEACAAJ&q=bianchi+theology+of+people|title=Theology of the People: An Introduction to the Work of Rafael Tello|date=2019-04-15|publisher=Crossroad Publishing Company|isbn=978-0-8245-9910-2|language=en}}{{Cite journal|last=Bianchi|first=Enrique Ciro|url=https://www.academia.edu/33716587|title=Pobres en este mundo ricos en la fe (índice y presentación 2da edic)|journal=Pobres en Este Mundo Ricos en la Fe |language=en}}

When Francis later became pope, liberation theology could no longer "remain in the shadows to which it has been relegated for some years, at least in Europe," according to the Vatican's semiofficial newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano. Walter Kasper pointed out that, in line with the paradigm shift of Vatican II, Pope Francis' method "is not deductive but rather inductive in that it proceeds from the concrete human situation... The neighbor is for you the exposition of the concrete will of God."{{rp|35}} This is in accord with the Jesuit practice of "discernment" whereby one begins with the concrete situation, what Vatican II called discerning the "signs of the times" interpreted in the light of the gospel, rather than beginning with church doctrine. Such also is apparent in the method of "see, judge, and act" characteristic of liberation theology and is reflected in the report of the Latin America bishops' conference at Aparecida where Francis had chaired the editorial committee.{{rp|11,12}} Francis' later emphasis on collegiality may have received an impetus from Rome's serious changes in the Aparecida document: "the rejection of the significance and competence of the ecclesial authority representing a whole continent and it seemed to negate the teachings of the Second Vatican Council about collegiality."[https://smallchristiancommunities.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/proctor.pdf A Commitment to Neighborhood, 64.]

The conservative–progressive divide among bishops in Latin America has become apparent in the question of how involved the clergy should be in politics.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/11/vatican-new-chapter-liberation-theology-founder-gustavo-gutierrez|title=Catholic church warms to liberation theology as founder heads to Vatican|last=Janeiro|first=Stephanie Kirchgaessner Jonathan Watts in Rio de|date=2015-05-11|work=The Guardian|access-date=2017-09-05|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}} Óscar Romero was appointed bishop in San Salvador as a conservative but moved toward the progressive perspective just 17 days after his consecration as bishop, at the assassination of Father Rutilio Grande. Francis gave his clear support to the progressive perspective{{Cite news|url=https://cruxnow.com/analysis/2018/03/09/canonization-romero-francis-cements-enduring-legacies/|title=Canonization of Romero by Francis cements enduring legacies of both|date=2018-03-09|work=Crux|access-date=2018-03-09|language=en-US}} by moving forward the causes for canonization of Grande and Romero which had been on hold under the previous pontiffs.{{Cite news|url=https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/03/23/opposition-oscar-romeros-canonization-was-political-archbishop-paglia-says|title=Opposition to Óscar Romero's canonization was 'political,' Archbishop Paglia says|date=2017-03-23|work=America Magazine|access-date=2017-06-12|language=en}}{{Cite book|url=https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780742572690/The-Catholic-Church-and-Power-Politics-in-Latin-America-The-Dominican-Case-in-Comparative-Perspective|title=The Catholic Church and Power Politics in Latin America: The Dominican Case in Comparative Perspective|last=Betances|first=Emelio|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers|year=2007|pages=92 et passim}} He also chose to promote for canonization along with Romero Pope Paul VI, who was described as similar in his care for the poor and for social justice{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/07/world/europe/oscar-romero-pope-vi-sainthood.html|title=Pope Paves Way for Sainthood for Paul VI and Archbishop Óscar Romero|last=Pianigiani|first=Gaia|date=2018-03-07|work=The New York Times|access-date=2018-03-09|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}} and "an icon of the church that Francis is seeking to build."{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/world/mexico-americas/la-fg-pope-direction-20150528-story.html|title=Romero beatification signals Pope Francis' plan for Catholic Church|date=2015-05-28|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US|access-date=2019-09-24}}

The decline of base communities, small communities within a parish, during the papacy of Pope John Paul II has been attributed to his appointment of hundreds of new bishops, some 300 in Brazil alone, "and almost all of those new bishops have been more conservative than their predecessors."{{Cite web|url=http://natcath.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2004d/111204/111204m.php|title=Latin America Today: Base communities, once hope of church, now in disarray|website=natcath.org|access-date=2018-07-22}} Under Pope Francis, however, base communities have been making a comeback with his encouragement and blessing.{{Cite news|url=http://www.lastampa.it/2013/12/30/vaticaninsider/basic-ecclesial-communities-make-a-comeback-te8QG64FjkFxjdB11XvPpL/pagina.html|title=Basic Ecclesial Communities make a comeback|work=La Stampa|access-date=2018-07-22|language=it-IT}}{{Cite journal|last=Zupez|first=John|date=July 2020|title=Small Christian Communities: Rejuvenating the Church|url=https://www.theway.org.uk/websubs/593.pdf|journal=The Way|volume=59|pages=97–109}}

Regarding gay people, Francis has reportedly gone beyond the current Catechism and expressed sympathy to LGBT people, stating: "I believe that the church not only should apologize to the person who is gay whom it has offended, but has to apologize to the poor, to exploited women, to children exploited for labor; it has to ask forgiveness for having blessed many weapons."{{Cite news |last1=Gallagher |first1=Delia |last2=Burke |first2=Daniel |date=27 June 2016 |title=Pope says Christians should apologize to gays |url=http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/26/world/pope-apologize-gays/ |access-date=30 June 2017 |work=CNN}}

Francis has also appealed to consumers to reject low-cost goods produced by forced labor or exploitative means{{Cite web |date=2015-01-02 |title=Pope Francis urges people to unite to fight modern slavery |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-01-02/pope-francis-urges-people-to-fight-modern-slavery/5996584 |access-date=2019-09-24 |website=ABC News |language=en-AU}} and called low-wage labor a form of slavery.{{Cite web |last=Koba |first=Mark |date=2013-08-06 |title=A blunt Pope Francis targets free market economics |url=https://www.cnbc.com/id/100931792 |access-date=2019-09-24 |publisher=CNBC}}

Speaking about those who cannot satisfy their basic needs for food and health care, Francis has called upon all nations to show "a willingness to share everything and to decide to be Good Samaritans, instead of people who are indifferent to the needs of others."{{Cite web |date=20 June 2013 |title=Pope to FAO: more must be done to end scandal of starvation |url=http://en.radiovaticana.va/storico/2013/06/20/pope_to_fao_more_must_been_done_to_end_scandal_of_starvation/en1-703354 |access-date=30 June 2017 |work=Vatican Radio |language=en}}

In calling for the abolition of the death penalty and of life imprisonment, Francis criticized attempts to solve society's problems through public punishment rather than through "implementation of another type of social policy, economic policy, and policy of social inclusion."{{Cite web |date=2014-10-24 |title=Pope Francis calls for abolishing death penalty and life imprisonment |url=http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1404377.htm |archive-url=https://archive.today/20141024002736/http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1404377.htm |archive-date=2014-10-24 |access-date=2019-09-24 |website=archive.is}}

Francis reduced a sentence for sexual abuse by a priest from imprisonment to instead a lifetime of prayer, as well as a barring from saying Mass or being near children, along with five years of psychotherapy.{{Cite news |title=Pope quietly trims sanctions for sex abusers seeking mercy |url=https://apnews.com/64e1fc2312764a24bf1b2d6ec3bf4caf/pope-quietly-trims-sanctions-sex-abusers-seeking-mercy |access-date=2017-06-18 |work=AP News |language=en-US}} He said, of the case, "I was new and I didn't understand these things well, and before two choices I chose the more benevolent one... It was the only time I did it, and never again."{{Cite news |title=Pope Francis admits Catholic Church realized sex abuse problem 'a bit late' |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pope-francis-admits-catholic-church-realized-sex-abuse-problem-a-bit-late/ |access-date=2017-09-25 |language=en}}

{{See also|Pope Francis#Writings}}

• Evangelii gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel – 2013): an apostolic exhortation issued eight months into his papacy, a "programmatic" for his pontificate
• Laudato si' (Praise Be to You – 2015): an encyclical letter on the environment, "On care for our common home"
• Amoris laetitia (The Joy of Love – 2016): an apostolic exhortation "On love in the family"
• Gaudete et exsultate (Rejoice and Be Glad – 2018): an apostolic exhortation "On the call to holiness in today's world"
• Christus vivit (Christ is Alive – 2018): an apostolic exhortation "To young people and to the whole people of God"
• Fratelli tutti (Brethren all – 2019): an encyclical letter "On fraternity and social friendship"

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Reflist|group=lower-alpha}}

{{See also|Pope Francis#Bibliography}}

• {{ Citation | last = Borghesi | first = Massimo | translator-last = Hudock | translator-first = Barry |year = 2018 | orig-date = Italian original, 2017 | title = The Mind of Pope Francis: Jorge Mario Bergoglio's Intellectual Journey | publisher = Liturgical Press | place = Collegeville, Minnesota | isbn = 978-0-8146-8790-1 }}
• {{ Citation | last = Ivereigh | first =Austen | date =2015 | title = The great reformer: Francis and the making of a radical pope | publisher =PIcador | place =New York | isbn =978-1-250-07499-7 | oclc =889324005 }}
• {{ Citation | last = Kasper | first = Walter |year = 2016 | title = Pope Francis' Revolution of Tenderness and Love: Theological and Pastoral Perspectives

| publisher = Paulist | place = Mahwah, New Jersey | isbn = 978-0-8091-0623-3}}

{{Pope Francis}}

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Category:Pope Francis

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