This article examines the influence of Pope Francis on Catholic healthcare ethics. The
first section offers an analytical summary of his ethics. The second section reviews
a “Franciscan” approach to Catholic healthcare ethics, which situates that field
within the broader context of Catholic social teaching. The third section analyzes
the implications of three of Francis’s most powerful metaphors: his injunction to
“go to the peripheries”; his contrast between a throwaway culture and a culture of
encounter; and his comparison of the church to a field hospital.