Portrait of Pope Francis %282021%29 FXD.
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Duluth, Minnesota (OpEdNews) August 26, 2024: Pope Benedict XVI (1927-2022) shocked the Roman Catholic world when he resigned as pope in 2013. After his resignation, the Cardinal-electors elected Argentinian Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio (born in 1936), a Jesuit, as the new pope. He took the name of Francis in honor of the medieval Italian Saint Francis of Assisi (c.1181-1226), the founder of the Franciscan order.
Prior to his election, Pope Francis was not well known beyond South America. Consequently, journalists and others went to work to learn more about him, his life, and his views.
The Italian philosopher Massimo Borghesi published the informative book The Mind of Pope Francis: Jorge Mario Bergoglio's Intellectual Journey, translated by Barry Hudock (Liturgical Press, 2018; orig. Italian ed., 2017). Among other things, Borghesi tells us that Bergoglio started to work on a doctorate in Catholic theology in Germany, he but did not complete it.
In any event, in 2015, Pope Francis issued his widely read eco-encyclical Laudato Si' - undoubtedly the most widely read encyclical ever written by a pope. (His 2015 eco-encyclical is available in English and other languages at the Vatican's website.)
Now, both in terms of American political views, and in terms of general tendencies in the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis' 2015 eco-encyclical would be regarded as liberal.
However, in terms of general tendencies in the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis is undoubtedly doctrinally conservative. I have profiled the doctrinally conservative pope in my widely read OEN article "Pope Francis on Evil and Satan" (dated March 24, 2019):
Now, at some juncture, certain conservative American Catholics started reacting vociferously against the doctrinally conservative Pope Francis.
For an account of the anti-Francis reaction, see the Italian philosopher Massimo Borghesi's book Catholic Discordance: Neoconservatism vs. the Field Hospital Church of Pope Francis, translated by Barry Hudock (Liturgical Press Academic, 2021; orig. Italian ed., 2021).
In light of the vociferous anti-Francis conservative American Catholics, it is refreshing to see certain other American Catholics write more positively about him and his moral vision in the new 2024 book The Moral Vision of Pope Francis: Expanding the U.S. Reception of the First Jesuit Pope, edited by Conor M. Kelly of Marquette University and Kristin E. Heyer of Boston College (Georgetown University Press).
The most efficient way that I can provide you with an overview of this new 2024 collection of essays by American Catholic authors is to tell you its parts:
"Acknowledgments" (pp. ix-x).
"Introduction" by Conor M. Kelly of Marquette University and Kristin E. Heyer of Boston College (pp. 1-12).
Part I: "Foundations" (pp. 13-114).
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