Bergoglio claimed that the Italian abortionist and politician Emma Bonino was one of Italy’s “forgotten greats”. (link)
On June 16, 2016, Bergoglio claimed in a speech in front of a pastoral congress of his diocese that the “great majority” of “our sacramental marriages” are invalid. The Vatican changed the transcript to say “a part”, but he actually said a “great majority”, which can be heard in the video. He added: “I’ve seen a lot of fidelity in these cohabitations, and I am sure that this is a real marriage, they have the grace of a real marriage because of their fidelity.” (link, link)
Bergoglio claimed in an in-flight press conference in 2016: “I think that the intentions of Martin Luther were not mistaken. He was a reformer. Perhaps some methods were not correct. […] There was corruption in the Church, there was worldliness, attachment to money, to power…and this he protested. […] And today Lutherans and Catholics, Protestants, all of us agree on the doctrine of justification. On this point, which is very important, he did not err.” (link)
On January 18, 2016, Bergoglio said in his morning mass in the chapel of Santa Marta:
“Christians who obstinately maintain ‘it’s always been done this way,’ this is the path, this is the street—they sin: the sin of divination. It’s as if they went about by guessing: ‘What has been said and what doesn’t change is what’s important; what I hear—from myself and my closed heart—more than the Word of the Lord.’ Obstinacy is also the sin of idolatry: the Christian who is obstinate sins! The sin of idolatry. ‘And what is the way, Father?’ Open the heart to the Holy Spirit, discern what is the will of God.” (link)
Bergoglio claimed that the death penalty is always unjust, contradicting the Old and the New Testaments, and the 2000-year old tradition of the Church. On December 17, 2018, he said in a speech for the International Commission against the Death Penalty: “In past centuries, when the instruments available to us for the protection of society were lacking and the current level of development of human rights had not yet been achieved, recourse to the death penalty was sometimes presented as a logical and just consequence. Even in the Papal States, this inhuman form of punishment was resorted to, ignoring the primacy of mercy over justice. […] However, the harmonious development of the doctrine imposes the need to reflect in the Catechism that, notwithstanding the gravity of the crime committed, the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that the death penalty is always inadmissible because it counters the inviolability and the dignity of the person.” (link)
The Church has for 2000 years maintained that the death penalty is sometimes permissible. This idea is based on Romans 13:3-4 and Acts 25:11.
On the General Audience of January 2, 2019, Bergoglio said: “And how often we see the scandal of those people who go to church and are there all day long, or go every day, and then live by hating others or speaking ill of people. This is a scandal! It is better not to go to church: living this way, as if they were atheists.” (link)
Going to church on Sundays is one of the Precepts of the Church. (see CCC 2042-2043)
On December 20, 2019, Bergoglio visited a school in Rome and answered to a question of a student: “With a non-believer the last thing I have to do is try to convince him. Never. The last thing I have to do is talk. I have to live in accordance with my faith. And it will be my testimony that will awaken the curiosity of the other who says: ‘But why do you do this?’ And that’s where I can talk. But listen, never, ever advance the Gospel through proselytism. If someone says he is a disciple of Jesus and comes to you with proselytism, he is not a disciple of Jesus. We shouldn’t proselytize, the Church does not grow from proselytizing.” (full speech in Italian; link to English article)
In January of 2021, Bergoglio released the motu proprio “Spiritus Domini”, in which he changed Canon 230, §1 of the Code of Canon Law to allow for female lectors and acolythes. (link) 1Cor 14:33-35 and 1Tim 2:11-12 ban women to speak in church or to teach men, respectively.
In 2020, Bergoglio said in a documentary called “Francesco” by the filmmaker Evgeny Afineevsky: “What we have to create is a civil union law [for homosexuals]. That way they are legally covered. I stood up for that.” (link, link)
The CDF under Cardinal Ratzinger stated clearly in 2003 in the document “Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons”:
“In those situations where homosexual unions have been legally recognized or have been given the legal status and rights belonging to marriage, clear and emphatic opposition is a duty. One must refrain from any kind of formal cooperation in the enactment or application of such gravely unjust laws and, as far as possible, from material cooperation on the level of their application. In this area, everyone can exercise the right to conscientious objection.” (full text)
On May 29, 2015, Bergoglio said in front of a group of severely ill children and their families: “I often think of Our Lady, when they handed down to her the dead body of her Son, covered with wounds, spat on, bloodied and soiled. And what did Our Lady do? ‘Did she carry him away?’. No, she embraced him, she caressed him. Our Lady, too, did not understand. Because she, in that moment, remembered what the Angel had said to her: ‘He will be King, he will be great, he will be a prophet…’; and inside, surely, with that wounded body lying in her arms, that body that suffered so before dying, inside surely she wanted to say to the Angel: ‘Liar! I was deceived.’ She, too, had no answers.” (full speech)
On June 9, 2016, Bergoglio said in his homily in the Santa Marta chapel: “This (is the) healthy realism of the Catholic Church: the Church never teaches us ‘or this or that.’ That is not Catholic. The Church says to us: ‘this and that.’ […] It is not Catholic (to say) ‘or this or nothing:’ This is not Catholic, this is heretical.” (link)
In October 2016, before going to Lund, Sweden for the 500-year anniversary of the Reformation, Bergoglio met with Lutherans in the audience hall. A few people could pose questions to him. This exchange took place:
“15 year old girl: My friends do not go to Church, still they are my friends. Do I have to reconcile them with going to church or is it enough to remain good friends?
Pope Francis: The first question, the one that was posed in the context of the region having 80% of the population without a creed, is: “Do I have to convince these friends – good ones, who work and who are happy – do I have to convince them of my faith? What must I say to convince them?” Listen, the last thing you must do is to “speak.” You have to live as a Christian, like a Christian: convinced, forgiven, and on a path. It is not licit to convince them of your faith; proselytism is the strongest poison against the ecumenical path.” (link)
In his message for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation on September 1, 2016, Bergoglio said among other things: “In the light of what is happening to our common home, may the present Jubilee of Mercy summon the Christian faithful ‘to profound interior conversion’ (Laudato Si’, 217), sustained particularly by the sacrament of Penance. During this Jubilee Year, let us learn to implore God’s mercy for those sins against creation that we have not hitherto acknowledged and confessed. Let us likewise commit ourselves to taking concrete steps towards ecological conversion, which requires a clear recognition of our responsibility to ourselves, our neighbours, creation and the Creator (ibid., 10 and 229).
[…]
Examining our consciences, repentance and confession to our Father who is rich in mercy lead to a firm purpose of amendment. This in turn must translate into concrete ways of thinking and acting that are more respectful of creation. For example: ‘avoiding the use of plastic and paper, reducing water consumption, separating refuse, cooking only what can reasonably be consumed, showing care for other living beings, using public transport or car-pooling, planting trees, turning off unnecessary lights, or any number of other practices’ (Laudato Si’, 211). We must not think that these efforts are too small to improve our world. They ‘call forth a goodness which, albeit unseen, inevitably tends to spread’ and encourage ‘a prophetic and contemplative lifestyle, one capable of deep enjoyment free of the obsession with consumption’ (ibid., 212, 222).” (full text; link)
Bergoglio claimed in his audience of February 2, 2022, that “What, then, is the “communion of saints”? The Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms: “The communion of saints is the Church” (no. 946). What a beautiful definition this is! “The communion of saints is the Church”. What does this mean? That the Church is reserved for the perfect? No. It means that it is the community of saved sinners .[sic] The Church is the community of saved sinners. This is a beautiful definition. No one can exclude themselves from the Church. We are all saved sinners. […]
Let us consider, dear brothers and sisters, that in Christ no one can ever truly separate us from those we love because the bond is an existential bond, a strong bond that is in our very nature; only the manner of being together with [sic] each of them changes, but nothing and no one can break this bond. ‘Father, let us think about those who have denied the faith, who are apostates, who are the persecutors of the Church, who have denied their baptism: Are these also at home?’. Yes, these too, even the blasphemers, everyone. We are brothers. This is the communion of saints. The communion of saints holds together the community of believers on earth and in heaven.” (full text; link)
Pope Pius XII said in his encyclical Mystici Corporis that “[a]ctually only those are to be included as members of the Church who have been baptized and profess the true faith, and who have not been so unfortunate as to separate themselves from the unity of the Body, or been excluded by legitimate authority for grave faults committed.” (full text)
In his 2022 document on the Eucharist called “Desiderio Desideravi”, Bergoglio claimed that the only thing necessary to receive the Eucharist is faith. He wrote: “5. The world still does not know it, but everyone is invited to the supper of the wedding of the Lamb (Re 19:9). To be admitted to the feast all that is required is the wedding garment of faith which comes from the hearing of his Word (cf. Ro 10:17).” (full text)
Contrary to this, the Council of Trent infallibly declared in Canon 11 in the “Decree concerning the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist”: “If anyone says that faith alone is sufficient preparation for receiving the sacrament of the most Holy Eucharist, let him be anathema.” (link)