Elsie, I believe most Catholics have been patient and charitable with Pope Francis. However, the time has come to acknowledge that this Pontiff is not striving to uphold the Catholic faith; rather, he appears to want to undermine it. Last year's (pre)-synod on the family was a disaster and it seems the coming one will be even more destructive, with spotlights being given to renegade German Bishops pushing the “right” of divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion and even pitching the idea that Catholic priests should be able to preside over “commitment ceremonies” of same-sex couples. In an age when Catholics in developed nations shack up without getting married and divorce and remarry (outside the church) in great numbers, Pope Francis’s main concern is how to help people get annulments more quickly — and for free! He has said we shouldn't be “obsessed” with abortion — because that is merely the murder of babies — while he freely voices views about things such as “climate change” that are outside the purview of any Pope (in addition to being moronic and, frequently, bizarre, such as his rant against air conditioning). I fear the Church may be in actual or de facto schism within the next three years.
Further, I think the so-called “Francis effect”, that supposedly is leading legions of lapsed Catholics back to the Church, is an urban legend. Pope Francis does get high marks from Catholics who stopped attending Mass years ago, but have they started actually going to church every Sunday again? Not in any parish in the NYC area, I assure you. The main message non-Catholics and lapsed Catholics take away from Pope Francis is his “Who am I to judge?” remark that (I hope) was meant to refer to homosexuals who are trying to live chaste lives, but has been widely cited as evidence that the Church doesn't really take its old rules about homosexuality — and contraception and divorce, etc. — seriously anymore.