VATICAN CITY
AFP
[APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION EVANGELII GAUDIUM]
By Dario Thuburn (AFP)
Vatican City — Pope Francis called for reform to take powers from the Vatican and said Catholics should be more engaged in helping the needy, but ruled out allowing women priests in a key document released by the Vatican on Tuesday.
The Catholic leader said he was seeking advice on how his role should change — using an informal style for his first “apostolic exhortation”, in which he outlined his vision for the future of the Roman Catholic Church.
“It is my duty, as the Bishop of Rome, to be open to suggestions which can help make the exercise of my ministry more faithful to the meaning which Jesus Christ wished to give it,” the pope wrote.
Francis said it was time for “a conversion of the papacy”, adding that “excessive centralisation, rather than proving helpful, complicates the Church’s life”.
Bishops should have “genuine doctrinal authority”, he said in the document — a type of long open letter used by popes to communicate with their faithful.
“We have made little progress in this regard,” he said.
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