On Thursday, Pope Francis said in a historic interview that the Catholic Church talks too much about abortion. The following day, he gave his most forceful anti-abortion comments to date. What's the strategy here?

Since becoming pope last spring, Francis has electrified people with gestures and words that focus on healing. He directly calls hurting parishioners and writes letters to the editor reaching out to atheists.

In an unusually long and frank interview published Thursday in the Jesuit magazine America, he said the Catholic Church, the world's largest religious institution, should be a "field hospital" that should focus on mercy, not doctrine — even as he said he agrees with the doctrine.