First I will start off by saying that it’s impossible for a Pope to teach heresy. No pope has ever taught heresy. A pope can embrace heresy as an individual and this certainly has happened. but it has never happened that he taught it as part of the faith.
Popes are very careful when it comes to civil actions that overlap with moral law or with doctrine, as the case with abortion. The popes have never said that it is immoral to vote for a pro-choice candidate. If they did, that would bind Catholics at the polls, because we are bound by moral law. Evangelium Vitae very tactfully dances around elections and speaks only of abortion, capital punishment, euthanasia, infanticide and embryonic stem cell research, but says nothing about the individuals. What it says about government is that government has a moral duty to protect the sanctity of life. From there, the voter has to use his brains. So too it is when the pope speaks about the economy as has Pope Francis. He has packaged his statements on the economy in moral wrappers. Morality is within his jurisdiction. We can’t just blow off what he has to say about the economy.
I fail to understand why Americans are so terrified of the power of the Church. Sometimes, I get the impression that people are Americans first and Catholics second. It comes across that way in the manner that people are often seen arguing or defending themselves from the authority of the hierarchy.
I would not want to belong to a Church where I do not trust its leadership.
FYI, no pope has spoken infallibly, ex cathedra, since your namesake.
I would not want to belong to a Church where I do not trust its leadership.
I know of no orthodox Catholic who trusts Francis to be leading the Catholic Church with the intention of pleasing God, rather than man.