It is a big deal to the protestant. What you must always remember is the protestant's outlook on anything Christian is determined by the impeccability of the individual. It's part of their process for determining Truth.
If you remember the Church had to deal with this early on with the Donatists who said that those who had rejected the Church under threat of persecution by the Roman Empire were tainted and incapable of confecting the sacraments. This heresy was put down eventually by St. Augustine and the early church fathers. Unfortunately its remnants are still with us.
Its modern incarnation is the itinerant protestant who moves from one ecclesial community to the other searching for that which conforms to their personal preference i.e., a level of impeccability that is personally pleasing. You can see it when two protestants interact with each other discussing their leaders. "I like so-and-so because he/she speaks to me and emphasizes this particular biblical exegetical style" etc. It goes into the realm of liking, "I like."
And thus putting their faith in men, specifically, the impeccability of their ecclesial leaders so many protestant sects rise and fall on the sinful nature of their pastors. They become scandalized and scatter to the wind. One way they combat this is by giving hire/fire authority to a committee within the congregation. But that just exacerbates the problem. Too often the leadership position is determined not by any standard of truthful teaching but by externals: preaching style, points of emphasis, etc.
So you see, whenever the protestant attempts to discredit the Catholic Church by bringing up "bad" popes they are just engaging in projection. It's their faith that is determined by the fallibility of men. Our faith is the One True Faith always will remain no matter whose in the Vatican.
So you see, whenever the protestant Catholic attempts to discredit the Catholic Church Reformation by bringing up "bad" popes reformers, they are just engaging in projection.
Once again you are resorting to charging a Prot with having the same basis for veracity as Rome, which is both desperate and fallacious. Show me someone here who claims to possess assured infallibility, or imputes this to his earthy teacher, rather than the validity of his Truth claims resting upon Scriptural substantiation, and i will show you a Catholic or another cultist.
Its modern incarnation is the itinerant protestant who moves from one ecclesial community to the other searching for that which conforms to their personal preference i.e., a level of impeccability...
Once again, besides a ill-defined definition of Protestant which you would never tolerate for "Catholic," it is actually due to desire for spirituality that is behind evangelical migration, not some impeccable preacher, which in antithetical to evangelicals, and Rome bleeds souls away from reliance upon a church that is based upon the fallacious premise of ecclesiastical assured veracity, and one man's teaching as having it.
• In numbers (not percentage), Catholicism, which lists 68.1 million in the US, has experienced “the greatest net loss” of any major religious group. members. The 'had it' Catholics,” National Catholic Reporter ,Oct. 11, 2001, based on reports from the 2008 Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life survey and the National Council of Churches’ 2010 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches.
68% of those raised Roman Catholic still are Catholic... at 76%). 15% are now Protestant (9% evangelical); 14% are unaffiliated. Pew forum, Faith in Flux (April 27, 2009) http://pewforum.org/uploadedfiles/Topics/Religious_Affiliation/fullreport.pdf
80% of adults who were raised Protestant are still Protestant, but (analysis shows) 25% no longer self-identify with the Protestant denomination in which they were raised. ^
44 percent of Americans have switched religious affiliations since childhood, mostly mainline Protestants. 7% who were raised Protestant are now unaffiliated; 15% now belong to a different Protestant faith. ^
51% of Protestants from a different Protestant denomination cite a lack of spiritual fulfillment as a reason for leaving their childhood faith. 85% say they joined their current denominational faith because they enjoy the services and style of worship. Only 15% left say they left because they stopped believing in its teachings. ^
Those who have left Catholicism outnumber those who have joined the Catholic Church by nearly a four-to-one margin. 10.1% have left the Catholic Church after having been raised Catholic, while only 2.6% of adults have become Catholic after having been raised in a different faith.^
In numbers (not percentage), Catholicism, which lists 68.1 million in the US, has experienced “the greatest net loss” of any major religious group. members. The 'had it' Catholics,” National Catholic Reporter ,Oct. 11, 2001, based on reports from the 2008 Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life survey and the National Council of Churches’ 2010 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches.
68% of those raised Roman Catholic still are Catholic (higher than the retention rates of individual Protestant denoms, but less than Jews at 76%). 15% are now Protestant (9% evangelical); 14% are unaffiliated. Pew forum, Faith in Flux (April 27, 2009) http://pewforum.org/uploadedfiles/Topics/Religious_Affiliation/fullreport.pdf
80% of adults who were raised Protestant are still Protestant, but (analysis shows) 25% no longer self-identify with the Protestant denomination in which they were raised. ^
44 percent of Americans have switched religious affiliations since childhood, mostly mainline Protestants. 7% who were raised Protestant are now unaffiliated; 15% now belong to a different Protestant faith. ^
51% of Protestants from a different Protestant denomination cite a lack of spiritual fulfillment as a reason for leaving their childhood faith. 85% say they joined their current denominational faith because they enjoy the services and style of worship. Only 15% left say they left because they stopped believing in its teachings. ^
Those who have left Catholicism outnumber those who have joined the Catholic Church by nearly a four-to-one margin. 10.1% have left the Catholic Church after having been raised Catholic, while only 2.6% of adults have become Catholic after having been raised in a different faith.^
55% of evangelical converts from Catholicism cited dissatisfaction with Catholic teachings about the Bible was a reason for leaving Catholicism, with 46% saying the Catholic Church did not view the Bible literally enough.
81% of all Protestant converts from Catholicism said they enjoyed the service and worship of Protestant faith as a reason for joining a Protestant denomination, with 62% of all Protestants and 74% Evangelicals also saying that they felt God's call to do so.