Word on High: Pope Francis signaled this morning that he’d like the Catholic Church to ease up, become more welcoming, and less judgmental. The Pope’s 256-page guide to love, sex, and marriage is called “Amoris Laetitia,” Latin for “The Joy of Love.”

Francis didn’t lay down any new rules, choosing instead to leave t up to the priests how to deal with people who are divorced, gay, or unmarried and living together. He said, “A pastor cannot feel that it is enough to simply apply moral laws to those living in ‘irregular’ situations, as if they were stones to throw at people’s lives,” he wrote.

He did, however, maintain his dismissal of same-sex marriage.

Schoolyard: The fragile civility of the Democratic political campaign has broken down with each candidate calling the other “unqualified” to be president.

Hillary Clinton appears to have started the exchange of gunfire this week when she was asked on MSNBC about some things Sanders told the NY Daily News. Clinton said, “He’s been talking for more than a year about doing things he obviously hadn’t really studied or understood.” She also said, “You can’t really help people if you don’t know how to do what you are campaigning (for) and saying you want to do. I think he hasn’t done his homework.”

That spurred Sanders to bluntly say Clinton isn’t qualified to be president. “I don’t believe that she is qualified if she is, through her super PAC, taking tens of millions of dollars in special-interest funds,” he said. And he said, “I don’t think you are qualified if you have voted for the disastrous war in Iraq. I don’t think you are qualified if you supported the Panama free trade agreement.”

Clinton yesterday attempted to defuse the situation saying she’d take Bernie Sanders as president over Donald Trump or Ted Cruz any time.

Speaking of Trump, The Donald appears to have lost the love of right wing pundit queen Anne Coulter, who said in an interview, “Our candidate is mental. Do you realize our candidate is mental?”

The Ground Game: Among the requirements of running for president is mixing with pigs at county fairs and eating five diner breakfasts every morning to meet regular people. In New York, Hillary Clinton rode the subway, although it took her five swipes of her Metrocard to get through the turnstile. Bernie Sanders stuck to street transport because the Brooklyn-born Vermonter thinks you still use tokens.

Ted Cruz, who once railed against “New York values,” visited a matzo factory, sucking up to New Yorkers who value matzo.

Political analyst Jeff Greenfield tweeted that Cruz, “went into Katz’s deli and ordered pastrami on white with mayo,” which isn’t true but could be.

The Obit Page: Phil Sheffler, a producer who gave CBS News backbone in some of its greatest days, has died at age 85. Sheffler started out as a copy boy and later spent 25 years as executive editor of “60 Minutes.” He was known as one of the sage voices inside CBS.

Final Note: American Idol, the television talent show that launched musical stars for 15 years, named its final winner last night. The show made household names out of performers Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, and the Oscar-winning Jennifer Hudson. But as much as anything Idol was known for the snide dismissal of its judges, led by the sometimes-cruel Brit, Simon Cowell, who frequently confronted key contestants cast for comic relief.

Flameout: About 20,000 of Ivanka Trump’s colorful scarves from her clothing line have been recalled by the Consumer Product Safety Commission because, like her father’s presidential campaign, they are highly flammable. We should also mention, because her father promises to bring jobs back to America, that Ivanka’s flame-wear is made in China.

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