I certainly believe that no Pope will be able to teach error in such a way that he is formally demanding the adherence of faith from the whole Church for these errors.
I do think the reason Pope Francis is so devious and equivocating, and downright double-tongued --- relying on devious spokesweasels, "confidential" personal conversations that get leaked, ambiguous footnotes and the like --- is that he would *like* to proclaim outright heresy but finds that he cannot.
Sort of like the mercenary Balaam in the OT, who wanted to prophesy curses against Israel, but couldn't: only blessings would come out of his mouth.
This is the Faith, our faith.
Pope Francis may have ill intentions, or he may simply be someone who believes that now is a good time for the Church to be provocative (in every sense of the word). I tend to believe the latter is true, not simply for charitable reasons but also because I believe that’s the kind of man he is. I believe his motto is “make a mess of things” or something to that effect.
My heart (the “heart” spoken of in the Bible, not just my “feelings”) tells me that the Holy Spirit is using His Holiness despite any ill intentions on his part (or perhaps because of them) to do precisely that: to provoke us all into a deeper and more authentic faith because He knows the times are coming when we will need a faith much stronger than something that merely asks us to to go to Mass on Sunday and say the Roasary every day.
The Devil wants us focusing on hot button issues instead of Him, Jesus, who should not be the most important thing in our lives He should be the only thing. Period. The strength of our faith does not lie in traditionalism defeating liberalism or “right” over “left”. If it did, then our faith is exactly no different than any other proposed social system in the world from consumerism to communism and everything in between. If all we have for our faith are better arguments (or what we think are better) than the “other side”, then we have nothing.
We need Jesus as much as the rest of the world we are no different than those who haven’t met Him already. We have only met Him before others that’s it.
If we focus on “left vs right” we are lost already. I’m not saying we shouldn’t be vigilant but that the strength to be vigilant comes from Him not how “conservative” or “liberal” we are. And so how do we meet Jesus where is our relationship with Him most alive most real? I submit in the drama of life, when we allow ourselves our hearts (Biblical hearts not just our emotions) to experience the wound we have without Him. And then approaching, nay begging him in this brokenness to come. Maranatha! That should be our daily prayer.
This is the only way the Church is going to survive. Not because of or despite Francis, not by defeating all the social ills with finely crafted arguments, but by experiencing Christ fully in our life and then sharing Him with others. From that true evangelism, all the rest (abortion, euthanasia, gay “marriage”, you name it) will flow will be automatically solved. Solved not by us but by Him, by an encounter with Him. It sounds too easy that’s why we reject it and try to solve things on our own. But it’s not the Christian way to do things on our own. We can’t ever do anything on our own.
I’m not saying it’s wrong or a bad thing or a waste of time to write to one’s bishop with concerns or to engage in apologetics or theological study. I’m just saying we need to realize even all those good things won’t solve the problem, because our problem as is the world’s problem is a lack of Jesus as the only thing, only person, in our life. The Devil wants us to forget that all we need is Jesus. We can’t let that happen; that’s really what’s threatening the Church and the world today.