[wagglebee]

Maybe we have something better, i.e., someone who is cunningly wise and has an end-game much bigger than we know on the outside. After all, the Catholic world does not revolve around the United States and the Pope does have bigger problems than worrying what Americans think of him.

As much as I would LIKE to believe this, I simply cannot reconcile much of what he does with Church teaching.

The Pope is the leader of the Catholic Church and based on the sheer size of the Church he is the most significant religious leader in the world. His DUTY is to publicly uphold orthodox Christian beliefs and I am of the opinion that this will sometimes require refusing to publicly meet with certain individuals. The most loving thing we can ever do for someone is to warn them when their soul is in peril, it is cruelty to pretend that homosexuality is acceptable and the Pope knows this. I understand him wanting to see an old friend; however, this should have been done privately and away from media scrutiny.

That being said, I do realize that as Americans we have a tendency to want to apply conservative/liberal labels to everything and Christianity doesn't always fit into a given category as neatly as we want it to.

[darrellmaurina]

I feel the pain of Roman Catholics. It has been many years since you had a Pope who was not perceived as a stalwart for conservative Catholics. The firm stances of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI had the effect not only of mobilizing Roman Catholics but also attracting significant numbers of frustrated Protestants who saw their own churches falling into liberalism.

I'm not going to level attacks on the current pope because I don't know what he believes. Right now I don't think anyone knows for sure what the pope believes outside of his closest circles. That is not good for anyone who cares about biblical truth, whether inside or outside of the Roman Catholic Church. Uncertain trumpets do not mobilize forces; on the contrary, they invite attack from enemies who are always probing for weaknesses and opportunities.

Whatever Pope Francis does or does not believe, he's permitting a perception not only to take root but also to blossom that says the Pope wants to be more loving and more gentle, not only to sinners who fail to obey church teaching but also to people who disagree with church teaching.

The first might or might not be a good thing. Pastoral wisdom requires telling the difference between a repentant sinner and an obstinate evildoer, and that is not always easy to know. The second — tolerating those who want to tear down the church from the inside — is always wrong.

As a Protestant, I know what I believe is the solution to such problems. That solution is not available to Roman Catholics.

If your church is what your church doctrine says it is, God will take care of the problem for you since no human authority exists which is able to do so.

All I can do as an outsider is to pray for Roman Catholics. Your church has, for at least two generations since the 1960s, been the strongest force in America fighting abortion, as well as fighting for traditional values in many other areas. In a lot of other parts of the world, the same has been true.

I will be very unhappy if that changes.