Ping
And where was the “Bishop of Rome”?
Dunno. I've never said Francis is a great Pope. He's clearly not; we have frankly been spoiled by Benedict and St John Paul. We tend to forget that.
I've said before I'll say again: the Church survived the Borgia Popes (PRE-Vatican II by the way) She will survive Francis. And no, Francis is not as bad as they were.
Now you are faulting Pope Francis for not doing what no Bishop of Rome has ever done? Namely, get involved in street demonstrations? Did Pius V, or Pius IX, X, XI, or XII? Did Benedict XV or XVI?
It is utterly foolish to set up Your Own Personal Interpretation of Job Criteria for popes consisting of novelties (e.g. a presumed pontifical obligation to participate in a "manif," a street march), and then fault the pope for not carrying it out. Then you minimize what he DID do, which was to speak out in favor of the uniqueness of Natural and Sacramental Marriage a week before the demonstration.
Pope Francis warned against giving same-sex civil unions the same status as traditional families, speaking at the Vatican's Roman Rota tribunal the week before the Civil Union demonstrations:
The pope said:
"There can be no confusion between the family as willed by God, and every other type of union".
"The Church continues to propose marriage in its essentials --- offspring, good of the couple, unity, indissolubility, sacramentality --- not as ideal only for a few --- notwithstanding modern models centered on the ephemeral and the transient --- but as a reality that can be experienced by all the baptized faithful."
That's what Pope Francis said. I don't fault him for it.
There are 5100 bishops in the Catholic Church. A whole tasseled passel of them work in Vatican City and the City of Rome: and all the dicasteries, secretariats, tribunals, all the dang Curial congregations, are headed up by bishops. Where were they, those 5099 delinquent Waldoes? Where was Burke, your hero and mine?
No, no, leave off this foolish line of argumentation. It's middle-school clericalism. Let the Pope pope, let the Bishops bishop. And let the laity run our own demonstrations. This is our area of competence: action in the world.
The transformation of this world in Christ --- including political transformation, with demonstrations, lobbying groups, political parties, elections and all the rest --- does not need clerical leadership. It is our real sphere of competence, our responsibility. It is time for us, the laity, to grow up.