VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis denounced the global financial system that excludes the poor as he issued the mission statement for his papacy on Tuesday, saying he wants the Catholic Church to get its hands dirty as it seeks to bring solace and mercy to society’s outcasts.
In a 224-page document, Francis pulled together the priorities he has laid out over eight months of homilies, speeches and interviews, pushing to shift the church away from a focus on doctrine to one of joyful welcome.
The document, Evangelii Gaudium, (The Joy of the Gospel), is the second major teaching document issued by Francis, but is the first actually written by him since the encyclical The Light of Faith, issued in July, was penned almost entirely by Pope Benedict XVI before he resigned.
Francis’ concerns are laced throughout, and the theological and historical citations leave no doubt about his own points of reference and priorities: Popes John XXIII and Paul VI, who presided over the Second Vatican Council, which brought the church into the modern world, are cited repeatedly.
And in a first for an apostolic exhortation, as this type of papal pronouncement is called, Francis cited various documents of bishops’ conferences from around the world, an indication of the importance he places in giving the local church greater say in church governance.
In the text, Francis denounced trickle-down economic theories as unproven and naive, saying they are based on a survival of the fittest mentality “where the powerful feed upon the powerless” with no regard for ethics, the environment or even God.
“Money must serve, not rule!” he said in calling for political leaders to reform the system.
In a direct challenge to the focus of the past two popes, he also decried the church’s “obsession” with rules and doctrine and said in some cases, the church’s old customs can be cast aside if they no longer serve to communicate the faith.
At the same time, Francis restated the church’s opposition to abortion, making clear that the doctrine is non-negotiable and is at the core of the church’s insistence on the dignity of every human being.
While again ruling out women’s ordination, Francis called for greater role for women in making decisions in the church and said the faithful ought not to think that just because priests preside over Mass that they are more important than the people who make up the church itself.