Liminal Papacy of Pope Francis: Moving Toward Global Catholicity

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An exploration of the developing pontificate of Pope Francis, this book contrasts Francis with his immediate predecessor (Benedict XVI) and John Paul II, and shows his similarities with the spirit of John XXIII, the architect of Vatican II. It also attempts to offer a few insights into the role of Jorge Mario Bergoglio as bishop of Rome in the centuries-long process of transformation of the Roman Catholic Church into an inculturated and decentralized global Catholic Church. The author’s vast knowledge of the history and office of the papacy allows him to condense aspects of world history, politics, papal biographies, and the documents of Vatican II into an incisive analysis of Francis’s pontificate. He notes that Francis’s is a “liminal” papacy, one that gives attention to the poor, to the peripheries (especially relations between the Vatican and geographically and theologically distant areas of the Catholic communion), and to relations between the Vatican and other religions, with an emphasis on synodality and on the Church as the people of God.