section_path: Papacy (2013–2025)/Writings
section_name: Writings
paragraph_text: Writings
  
  Pope Francis wrote a variety of books, encyclicals, and other texts, including a memoir, Hope. On 29 June 2013, Francis published the encyclical Lumen fidei, which was largely the work of Benedict XVI but awaited a final draft at his retirement. On 24 November 2013, Francis published his first major letter as pope, the apostolic exhortation Evangelii gaudium, which he described as the programmatic of his papacy. On 18 June 2015, he published his first own encyclical Laudato si' concerning care for the planet. On 8 April 2016, Francis published his second apostolic exhortation, Amoris laetitia, remarking on love within the family. Controversy arose at the end of 2016 when four cardinals formally asked Francis for clarifications, particularly on the issue of giving communion to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics.
  
  A further apostolic exhortation, Gaudete et exsultate (Rejoice and be glad), was published on 19 March 2018, dealing with "the call to holiness " for all persons. He counters contemporary versions of the gnostic and Pelagian heresies and describes how Jesus's beatitudes call people to "go against the flow".
  
  In February 2019, Francis acknowledged that priests and bishops were sexually abusing religious sisters. He addressed this and the clergy sex abuse scandal by convening a summit on clergy sexual abuse in February 2019. As a follow-up to that summit, on 9 May 2019 Francis promulgated the motu proprio Vos estis lux mundi which specified responsibilities, including reporting directly to the Holy See on bishops and on one's superior, while simultaneously involving another bishop in the archdiocese of the accused bishop.
  
  On 4 October 2020, Francis published the encyclical Fratelli tutti on fraternity and social friendship.
  
  On 8 December 2020, on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Pope Francis published the apostolic letter Patris corde ("With a Father's Heart"). To mark the occasion, the Pope proclaimed a "Year of Saint Joseph" from 8 December 2020 to 8 December 2021 on the 150th Anniversary of the Proclamation of Saint Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church.
  
  On 1 June 2021, Francis published the apostolic constitution Pascite gregem Dei. The document reformed Vatican penal law by strengthening the penalties for sexual abuse and financial crimes; it also more harshly punished the ordination of women.