Pope Francis had important things to say about mothers, in keeping with his often expressed view of Mary as the model of mother and woman.
When he spoke about motherhood, it was with an understanding of women as human beings with a unique purpose and important role alongside men.
In his homily for the solemnity of Mary in 2019, Pope Francis framed motherhood as irreplaceable, observing that ‘A world that looks to the future without a mother’s gaze is shortsighted.’
The human family is built upon mothers, he went on, and dismissing maternal tenderness as mere sentiment leaves society materially rich but spiritually impoverished.
Throughout his papacy, Francis preached on the value of parents and decried sociopolitical and cultural movements that he believed sidelined mothers, in particular. After a series of ‘synods on the family’, Pope Francis published Amoris laetitia in 2015, including a section addressed to pregnant women that urged them to ignore external negativity and focus on the joy of ‘being God’s means of bringing new life into this world.
‘Keep happy and let nothing rob you of the interior joy of motherhood. Your child deserves your happiness,’ he wrote.
He encouraged women to face pregnancy as Mary did when she spoke of her spirit exulting in God (in Luke 1:46–48). ‘Try to experience this serene excitement amid all your many concerns,’ he said, ‘and ask the Lord to preserve your joy, so that you can pass it on to your child.’
Oxford University bioethicist Michael Wee sees this supportive approach to pregnant women as an example of how Francis’ pontificate applied Catholic moral principles to the modern world.
Speaking at a recent webinar hosted by Australian Catholic University’s Plunkett Centre for Ethics, Dr Wee characterised Francis as a pope who upheld and applied Catholic doctrine in the life of the Church. ‘He wanted to ensure the Church was not boxed in by the word alone, that the Church explored what the application of moral teaching to the messiness of reality looked like.’
Sometimes this meant exploring new pastoral solutions, Dr Wee said, but without discarding tradition. He maintained that Francis doubled down on critiques of modern trends such as the commodification of life, while reframing others through an attitude of care rather than condemnation.
Dr Wee recalled hearing first-hand Francis describing ‘the wondrous nature’ of pregnancy and birth, offering a glimpse into the way the Pope reframed many familiar moral issues and moral teachings of the Catholic Church. ‘And really, I’ve never heard a pope speak about this topic of beginning-of-life ethics in this way,’ Dr Wee said. ‘He spoke about how when a woman discovers she’s expecting a child, she immediately feels within her a deep sense of mystery. She’s aware of a presence growing within her, one that pervades her whole being.’
Pope Francis was speaking at a 2019 Vatican conference on supporting families with terminally ill newborns. Dr Wee described his insights at the conference as groundbreaking. ‘We debate embryos and autonomy, but rarely the dignity of pregnancy itself—this little community with its own flourishing.’
Dr Wee told webinar participants that the Pope went on at the 2019 conference to express what Dr Wee believes was the first official papal support for the movement called ‘perinatal comfort care’, ‘essentially applying the best of our hospice care treatments and strategies for babies who are born and who might not live for much longer.
‘And the Pope spoke about unborn children as simply little patients. They are little patients who can be treated, who can be cared for in an integrated care process.’
Catholic Social Teaching, rooted in ‘the inviolable dignity of every human being,’ rejects ideological shortcuts, he said. ‘Francis’ encyclical Fratelli tutti [‘brotherhood between all’] exemplifies this, framing justice as a communal project rather than individualistic rights-talk,’ he said. ‘Yet his emphasis on care over polemics—as with perinatal hospice—offers a pastoral counterpoint to culture-war battles.’
Dr Wee said that this approach sometimes caused tension: ‘Prudential judgements are difficult because they’re tied to circumstances.’ For Dr Wee, the mark of Francis’ papacy was the way he bridged the Church’s moral and social teachings, arguing they are inseparable. ‘He had criticised those who cling rigidly to doctrine without room for the “God of surprises”, warning against hostile inflexibility that is wanting to close oneself within the written word … and not allowing oneself to be surprised by God.’
For mothers, this shift matters. By honouring the ‘interior joy of motherhood’ while urging practical and societal support, Francis upheld doctrine without reducing it to a weapon.
Banner image: A mother comforts her infant daughter. In his apostolic exhortation Amoris laetitia, Pope Francis said that mothers ‘testify to the beauty of life’. (Photo: CNS/Nancy Wiechec.)
