Pope Francis calls for major reforms in the Catholic church

Pope Francis has outlined his vision for Church in the first big written text of his papacy which was released on Tuesday.

The Catholic leader said he was "open to suggestions" on how his role should change.

The 85-page document called The Joy of the Gospel is the first official papal document written entirely by Pope Francis.

Pope Francis called for reforms to take powers away from the Vatican and said Catholics should be more engaged in helping the needy, AFP reported.

He called for renewal of the Roman Catholic Church and attacked unfettered capitalism as "a new tyranny," urging global leaders to fight poverty and growing inequality.

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Francis said it was time for "a conversion of the papacy", adding that "excessive centralisation, rather than proving helpful, complicates the Church's life".

The document reiterates the Church's opposition to the ordination of female priests, saying this is "not a question open to discussion".

It also touches on inter-faith relations, urging Christians to "embrace with affection and respect Muslim immigrants to our countries in the same way that we hope and ask to be received and respected in countries of Islamic tradition", BBC reported.

A council of cardinals has been instituted by Francis to advise him on reforms including a shake-up of the Vatican bureaucracy after a series of high-profile scandals in recent years.

The Pope called on rich people to share their wealth. "Just as the commandment 'Thou shalt not kill' sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say 'thou shalt not' to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills. How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses 2 points?"

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The pope said renewal of the Church could not be put off and said the Vatican and its entrenched hierarchy "also need to hear the call to pastoral conversion."

"I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security," he wrote.

On the world's obsession with money, the Pope wrote "We have created new idols. The worship of the ancient golden calf has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose.”

On the role of the state in providing for the common good and regulating the economy: "This imbalance is the result of ideologies which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation. Consequently, they reject the right of states, charged with vigilance for the common good, to exercise any form of control. "

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Francis emphasised on the importance of the Church's social message.

"The poor and the poorer peoples are accused of violence, yet without equal opportunities the different forms of aggression and conflict will find a fertile terrain for growth and eventually explode," he said.

Turning to other faiths, Francis said that ties with Islam had taken on "great importance" for the Catholic Church because of the growing number of Muslim immigrants in many traditionally Christian countries, AFP reported

"We Christians should embrace with affection and respect Muslim immigrants to our countries in the same way that we hope and ask to be received and respected in countries of Islamic tradition," he said.

"I ask and I humbly entreat those countries to grant Christians freedom to worship and to practice their faith, in light of the freedom which followers of Islam enjoy in Western countries," he added.

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