[Catmom]

I’m beginning to question his fitness for the job. I’m a Baptist who respects Catholicism (the kind that still has the b@ll$ to be true to the faith). But the new Pope seems more are more to be deviating from the true church.

[Secret Agent Man]

i don’t know. i just don’t like this “trend” of non-muslim leaders bowing to muslim leaders. rubs me wrong. don’t care how “nice” they are, don’t care about “respect”, don’t care about any rationalization tossed out to explain it  away. they don’t read that behavior the same as we do in the west, and WE ALL KNOW IT, so we shouldn’t do it because we know how they WILL view it, and how it will embolden them to do more jihad against the rest of the world.

[vladimir998]

He’s rock solid in orthodox teaching. He’s just not someone to stick to unnecessary customs. I wish he would stick to many of them, but he’s the office holder and I’m not.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I think you're missing the big picture --- a picture which was not alluded to in this article, of course, given the Telegraph's and other media's) penchant for majoring in the minors.

Look around the region. There are hundreds of thousands of Christians in Syria--- mostly from the Assyrian Church of the East, and the Chaldeans --- who are living as exiles there because they were pushed out of Iraq by the chaotic aftermath of our failed Iraq War. Plus Syria itself --- even without the Iraqi refugees --- is about 10% Christian.

If they ALL get pushed out of Syria by the civil war, the only place they can go in the region will probably be Jordan, which (without refugees) is 6% Christian (majority Greek Orthodox, but some Greek and Roman Catholics, Syrian Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, and Protestant denominations).

The Pope is responsible to the six Eastern Catholic patriarchs, plus the rest of these hard-pressed Faithful of the ancient Churches, to provide for their safety and well-being as best he can.

Why's he meeting the the royals of Jordan? Because he is trying to find diplomatic, political, as well as physical support for the suffering Christian people of the Middle East who are faced with extermination.

It's pretty obvious that this is behind his outreach to the largely secular, non-nutzojihadi Jordanian royalty. Is that a good enough reason for you?