Francis, who died this morning, transformed far more than the priorities of the Catholic Church.
Pope Francis, who died this morning at the age of 88, may go down in history as the most quoted pontiff. His statements to the press will shape his legacy far more than his official teachings; in terms of attention and influence, there was no contest between the two. Despite his reputation as a progressive reformer, Francis took a relatively cautious approach to doctrine. But through a massive corpus of interviews—more than 70 of which were long enough to be published as books, according to the longtime Vatican journalist Luis Badilla—he was able to inspire debate within the Church and shift its priorities without touching the letter of its laws. Francis was much more accessible to the media than any of his predecessors—a gift to me and the rest of the Vatican press corps. On the outgoing flight of almost every international trip, he greeted each of us one by one, coming down the aisle even when hobbled by nerve pain. Then, on the flight back to Rome, he would gather us to answer questions. As far as news conferences go, these were pretty thrilling. In the early years at least, we never knew what to expect when Francis started talking, except that a sound bite was probably coming any moment. During his first such conference, in 2013, he replied to a question about gay priests with what would become the most famous words of his papacy: "Who am I to judge?" The response—which prompted a mix of celebration, outrage, and confusion—was an early indication of how he would communicate during his 12 years as pope: off-the-cuff, blunt in style, ambiguous in substance. From the May 2015 issue: Will Pope Francis break the Church? Before becoming pope, Francis served as the archbishop of Buenos Aires, a role in which he avoided the press. But as soon as he moved into the Vatican, Francis seemed to relish speaking with reporters. His tone regularly fell somewhere between informal and irreverent, such as when he mused about kicking people "where the sun doesn't shine" or…