Monumental shift or mixed bag? Pope allows same-sex blessings.
When Pope Francis became the first person from the Americas to lead the Catholic Church a decade ago, he immediately began to emphasize the pastoral ministries of the church over what could be seen as a dogmatic insistence on the purity of its teachings.
That was the emphasis of his predecessor, Pope Benedict, a theologian and specialist in church doctrine. He believed the Catholic church must stand boldly against moral relativism or cultural change that might compromise the integrity of its immutable teachings.
So the newly elected Pope Francis immediately startled observers around the world in 2013 when he told a group of
