Pope Francis, during his 2013 papacy, became a revolutionary figure by shifting the Catholic Churchâs focus away from traditional conservative issues such as abortion and gay marriage. His open-door policy sought to embrace a more inclusive church, emphasizing social justice issues like poverty and climate change. Francis encouraged a pastoral approach among church leaders, reflecting the changing demographics within American Catholicism, including a growing Hispanic presence. He allowed same-sex blessings and made participation easier for divorced Catholics, inspiring hope among many who felt marginalized in a predominantly conservative landscape.
Across the United States, Catholics and non-Catholics alike took a collective gasp. For years the Roman Catholic Church in the United States had deeply aligned with the religious right in fierce conflicts over issues like abortion, gay marriage and contraception.
Pope Francis wanted a church with doors always wide open, as he said in his first apostolic exhortation. Words like these made the new pope a revolutionary figure in the United States, in both the Catholic Church and the nation's politics.
He challenged each to shift its moral focus toward issues like poverty, immigration and war, and to confront the realities of income inequality and climate change.
At a time of increasing secularization, the world's most visible Christian leader gave hope to many U.S. non-Catholics who saw in him a moral visionary while much of public Christianity in America took a rightward turn.
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