Pope Francis, the Ethicist: Ignatian Roots, Jesuit Priorities, Contemporary Challenges Tomas Massaro, SJ FORDHAM UNIVERSITY, BRONX, NY, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Te teachings of Pope Francis on such ethical issues as economic justice, family life, ecology, refugee rights and peacemaking reflect core elements of Ignatian spirituality. Tese include careful discernment, respect for individual consciences, Christian humanism, personalism, attention to the affect and a commitment to practical pastoral flexibility. Te pope’s engagement with global challenges also reflects the influence of recent institutional priorities of the Society of Jesus, particularly its 2019 Uni- versal Apostolic Preferences and Jesuit responses to globalization and structural injustice. P ope Francis has received extraordinary attention in both global media and theological circles. But one area that has so far eluded adequate coverage is the contribution Pope Francis has made to the field of moral theology and ethics, and specifically social ethics. Recall the central questions driving the enterprise of moral theology: What are the behavioral implications of Christian faith? If we are sincere in the beliefs that we profess as Catholic Christians, how are we to act? What moral obligations do faithful followers of Jesus recognize and resolve to enact in our daily lives? What spe- cific guidance for our daily decisions derives from our religious commitments and reflection on the Gospel? We of course need to consider both personal morality, which considers the duties that each of us observes in our intimate face-to-face relations with family, friends, and neighbors, on one hand, and social ethics, which treats the principles and priorities that are appropriate for large-scale social relations, on the other hand. Te latter is the realm of collec- tivities such as governments, corporations, nonprofits and other organizations holding power and influence in our society. 1 173 1. It may be helpful at the outset to acknowledge the widely acknowledged tensions that exist between ethics that proceed on the small scale (i.e., personal or interpersonal morality) and on the larger scale (the principles of social ethics appropriate to governments and their policies, for example). Some influential theologians such as Reinhold Niebuhr (see