Here is where I, as a Baptist preacher, have an issue with the Pope...especially this Pope: As ministers of the Gospel...our job is to PREACH the gospel. Period. Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor 2:2). We will disagree with the authority of the Pope...and I know you know that...but the problem I really have is this: If one is the vicar of Christ...then one should do as Christ did...and Christ had one mission: The salvation of mankind by preaching "repent and believe." Everything else is fluff and manmade foolishness.
Now...please do not get me wrong...I see the same problems in my protestant and evangelical brethren. They've filled their churches with programs to catch fish instead of throwing out the fishing line of the Gospel of Christ. They stand condemned as well and I do my fair share of letting them know it.
But here is what really puzzles me: The church authority issue, as believed by Catholics. How can San Fran Nan stand up and say she is a mainstream Catholic (and she is right if you look at the stats of American Catholics...their worship (mass) attendance, how they vote...their support of same-sex marriage and abortion rights...etc)...how can ANY catholic stand up and say that and disagree with two fundamental stances of the Catholic Church: Anti-Abortion and ant-homosexuality? How can Bishops get away with disagreeing with that? How can Cardinals disagree with that and let their congregants violate it?
Why won't the first thing Pope Francis does in the US in September be pointing his finger at all the pro-choice Catholics in congress and telling them to repent or be excommunicated? That's what a leader does.
So, I guess it boils down to this: I think Catholics believe in Papal authority in theory...but in practice it means squat...because if it actually meant something, Ted Kennedy would have been out a long time ago...and Nancy Pelosi and her ilk would be excommunicated and publically condemned long ago. Any Bishop or cardinal that strayed from Catholic doctrine would be gone. So, from an outsiders point of view....he really has no power if following the vicar of Christ is one's choice without consequence. If it's a choice, then its really not authority.
As a member of the armed forces, I have no choices. Well, that's not true...I can either follow an unlawful order or leave...and leave is just what I am prepared to do the second someone asks me to violate my oath.
You have nailed another one of my long-term frustrations with the Church.
Historically we have been on the side of unborn life from the beginning, which is admirable. But I have spent most of my adult life in Pittsburgh, a city that is overwhelmingly Catholic (and Democrat), watching bishops, priests and nuns fall all over themselves fawning over local Democrat politicians who had never met an abortion they would not vote for. And they would always take Communion, despite the fact that everyone in the building darn well knew they were not in a state to do so. I would have been denied if I had brought a Big Mac to Mass and eaten it during the Homily.
Then we failed to mobilize against Obama in 2012 after he had more or less declared war on us with the health care mandates. Perhaps that told me all I needed to know.