A Papal progress report
After two years, how much progress has Pope Francis made in his mission to reform the Catholic church?
Even before he ascended Peter's throne, then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio warned that the Catholic Church was "sick" and full of "theological narcissism."
Since taking the top job, Pope Francis has embarked on an aggressive campaign of reform. His target is one of the oldest, most powerful and least open to reform institutions in the world. His task is Herculean.
There's the Roman Curia, the staff of the church's central administration. In a speech in December, Francis lambasted it with words like "cliquishness", "careerism" and "indifference to others."
At the Vatican Bank, there are accusations of money laundering and connections with the mafia.
There's the sexual abuse scandal. Some steps have been taken to make reparations, to punish the guilty and to prevent future crimes. But many charge that progress is slow.
There's the Church's stance on social issues like homosexuality, divorce and birth-control -- and the role of women in the Church.
But perhaps most revolutionary of all, Pope Francis says he wants "a poor church for the poor".
On the second anniversary of the election of Pope Francis, we invited an avid watcher of all things Vatican to assess his progress. Michael W. Higgins is an award-winning biographer, a scholar and Vice-President for Mission and Catholic Identity at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. He is a regular contributor to New York's Commonweal magazine, and he writes a weekly blog, pontifex minimus, on Catholic intellectual life.