Pope Francis has hit out at the "excessive centralisation" of the Catholic church and railed against what he described as a murderous "economy of exclusion and inequality" in a wide-ranging document likened by oneVatican observer to a "Magna Carta for church reform".

Criticising everything from defeatist Christian "sourpusses" to believers with "an ostentatious preoccupation" for doctrine and the church's prestige, the Argentinian pontiff presented a sweeping vision of the change he wants to introduce.

In an 84-page apostolic exhortation, his most important written intervention to date, Francis explored the issues he has made the pillars of his papacy, such as the need for ethical reform of the global financial system and a more pastoral church that gets "bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets".

Chastising an economic system which "tends to devour everything which stands in the way of increased profits", he wrote: "Just as the commandment 'Thou shalt not kill' sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say 'thou shalt not' to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills. How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?"

He added that he prayed for secular leadership with a social conscience. "I beg the Lord to grant us more politicians who are genuinely disturbed by the state of society, the people, the lives of the poor."   Keep reading