VATICAN CITY
BBC News
Pope Francis has called for power in the Catholic Church to be devolved away from the Vatican, in the first major work he has written in the role.
In the document, he says he is open to suggestions to changes in the power of the papacy.
He also warns that rising global economic inequality is bound to explode in conflict.
Since becoming Pope in March, Francis has struck a markedly different tone to his predecessor on several issues. …
Analysis
David Willey
BBC News, Rome
The new document did not address some of the key ethical reforms called for by Catholic progressives and ruled out any change in the Church’s teaching on abortion or the exclusion of women from the priesthood. However, the Pope has already set up an advisory council of eight cardinals who are due to gather in Rome for their second plenary meeting next week.
He has also set up new mechanisms for reform of the Vatican bureaucracy. the main thrust of Pope Francis’ pontificate, as outlined in this document and in his many homilies, is that he wants to see a less Vatican-centred Church whose greatest concern is for the poor and the marginalised, victims of an unjust global economic system that puts profit before people.
In addition, Pope Francis says that ties with Islam have taken on great importance for the Catholic Church because of the growing number of Muslim immigrants now residing in many traditionally Catholic countries. “We Christians,” he says, “should embrace Muslims with affection and respect in the same way that we hope and ask to be respected in countries of Islamic tradition.”
In his “apostolic exhortation”, Pope Francis said he preferred a Church that was “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”.
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