VATICAN CITY
Boston Globe
By Nicole Winfield | ASSOCIATED PRESS NOVEMBER 26, 2013
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis issued the mission statement for his papacy Tuesday, outlining how the Catholic Church and the papacy itself must be reformed to create a more missionary and merciful church that gets its hands dirty as it seeks out the poor and oppressed.
In the 85-page document, Francis pulled together the priorities he has laid out in eight months of homilies, speeches and interviews and put them in the broader context of how to reinvigorate the church’s evangelical zeal in a world marked by indifference, secularization and vast income inequalities.
He explained his most controversial remarks criticizing the church’s ‘‘obsession’’ with transmitting a disjointed set of moral doctrines, saying that in the church’s ‘‘hierarchy of truths,’’ mercy is paramount, proportion is necessary, and that what counts is inviting the faithful in.
He went even further Tuesday, saying some of the church’s historical customs can even be cast aside if they no longer serve to communicate the faith. Citing St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, Francis stressed the need for moderation in norms ‘‘so as to not burden the lives of the faithful.’’
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