“I, too, must think about a conversion of the papacy…”

One more striking excerpt from “The Joy of the Gospel”:    

32. Since I am called to put into practice what I ask of others, I too must think about a conversion of the papacy. It is my duty, as the Bishop of Rome, to be open to suggestions which can help make the exercise of my ministry more faithful to the meaning which Jesus Christ wished to give it and to the present needs of evangelization. Pope John Paul II asked for help in finding “a way of exercising the primacy which, while in no way renouncing what is essential to its mission, is nonetheless open to a new situation”.[35] We have made little progress in this regard. The papacy and the central structures of the universal Church also need to hear the call to pastoral conversion. The Second Vatican Council stated that, like the ancient patriarchal Churches, episcopal conferences are in a position “to contribute in many and fruitful ways to the concrete realization of the collegial spirit”.[36] Yet this desire has not been fully realized, since a juridical status of episcopal conferences which would see them as subjects of specific attributions, including genuine doctrinal authority, has not yet been sufficiently elaborated.[37] Excessive centralization, rather than proving helpful, complicates the Church’s life and her missionary outreach.

33. Pastoral ministry in a missionary key seeks to abandon the complacent attitude that says: “We have always done it this way”. I invite everyone to be bold and creative in this task of rethinking the goals, structures, style and methods of evangelization in their respective communities. A proposal of goals without an adequate communal search for the means of achieving them will inevitably prove illusory. I encourage everyone to apply the guidelines found in this document generously and courageously, without inhibitions or fear. The important thing is to not walk alone, but to rely on each other as brothers and sisters, and especially under the leadership of the bishops, in a wise and realistic pastoral discernment.

Read it all.  It will astonish, challenge, inspire and illuminate. It’s deeply personal and unfailingly optimistic, fully living up to its title.

I think it could almost serve as the Mission Statement of the Franciscan papacy.  If you want to know where Francis wants to take the Church, look no further.

Some other voices:

• John Thavis: “It is a remarkable and radical document, one that ranges widely and challenges complacency at every level. It critiques the over-centralization of church bureaucracy, poor preaching and excessive emphasis on doctrine, while encouraging pastoral creativity and openness, even calling for a much-needed “pastoral conversion” in papal ministry.”
• James Martin, SJ:  “At one point, Pope Francis uses a famous quote from Pope John XXIII, who noted at the opening of the Second Vatican Council that many doubted things could change for the better.  Too many people at the time—1962–were predicting doom and disaster for the church and for the world. But Pope John disagreed.  ‘We feel that we must disagree with those prophets of doom who are always forecasting disaster.’ Evangelii Gaudium is Francis’s own ringing response to prophets of doom.”
• Michael Sean Winters: “Evangelii Gaudium is remarkable the way Pope Francis is remarkable. He has set forth a bold vision for the Church, in this text and in the past nine months. The “sourpusses” are grumbling but we can hope that they, too, will catch the Francis Fever and see that it is not Francis’ fever at all; it is the zeal of the Gospels, a Gospel that is credible when grasped and preached as attractive, not scolding, welcoming and not exclusionary.”
• Andrea Torinelli: “This offers a glimpse of the Pope’s plan for the reform of the Roman Curia: to reduce bureaucracy, streamline it and above all, make it an instrument that serves the Pope and the local Churches and not a central government body. To do this, he plans to transfer more power from the centre to local Episcopates as well as merge existing dicasteries.”
• Archbishop Rino Fisichella: When the pope writes about the reform of church structures to be always missionary or the need to improve homilies or the obligation to reach out to the poor first of all or his insistence that the church always will defend the life of the unborn,  “the cement which binds all these themes together is concentrated in the merciful love of God.”

Also, CNS has a roundup of memorable quotes from the document.