9 - The Social Teaching of Pope Francis

Summary

This chapter argues that in reading the social teaching of Pope Francis what is needed is the deployment of a “hermeneutic of continuity,” one that forthrightly reads Francis’s continuities and discontinuities within the context of the tradition of Catholic thought that preceded him. This chapter closely examines the central themes of the pope’s teaching in the following texts: Caring for Our Common Home, The Joy of the Gospel, The Church and Europe, The Church and America, In the Name of Mercy, and The Family in the Modern World. It then considers “The Other Francis,” the Francis who is prone to troubling off-the-cuff remarks that lack any authoritative status as Catholic teaching or doctrine. The essay concludes with a brief discussion of the “Crisis in the Church” which has arisen from Francis’s tendency to question the teachings of his predecessors and to ignore reasonable requests for the clarification of Catholic teaching.