He is the Barack Obama of the Vatican.
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.
— Mark Twain
Catholicism is supporting your Catholic religion all the time and the Vatican when it deserves it.
— Iron Munro
You’re talking as if the Vatican isn’t at the center of what Catholicism is about. Henry VIII said he could be a Catholic without the pope; was he right?
Good comment: “Catholicism is supporting your Catholic religion all the time and the Vatican when it deserves it.”
Although perhaps replace “Vatican” with “a specific Pope.” There have been many popes that were/are viewed as “bad” but the Catholic Church and Christianity has survived them.
And as a Protestant, I expect Catholicism to continue after Pope Francis and perhaps to find a new pope as good as Pope Benedict XVI.