>Isn't catholic social doctrine dictated by the pope? Yes, but it's more akin to how US Foreign Policy is dictated by the President. Ignoring the religious as

>Isn't catholic social doctrine dictated by the pope? Yes, but it's more akin to how US Foreign Policy is dictated by the President. Ignoring the religious aspect for a bit. The Pope has the power to dictate Catholic social doctrine, but he primarily interprets existing doctrine, which has been established over 2000 years. I don't believe that the current Pope has taken any steps to explicitly change doctrine, merely to explain it. For example, the church considers abortions to be a sin (murder). This has often resulted in penalties and bias against women who have had an abortion within the church. Pope Francis has called for more love and respect towards these women. This was not presented as a change in doctrine, however the language is imprecise so it can be interpreted as "abortion is not a grave sin" or as "love the sinner, hate the sin." Obviously people will use the imprecision to support their agenda.