[__BrianDGLS__]

As a Catholic this is news to me. I like the Pope, thought he was good. In fact I haven't heard any other Catholics I know criticize him.

I feel this article is trying to "Stir up a storm" with sensational language. There is little behind this in my opinion.

[labster]

I can only assume you're in a bubble, then. Perhaps me too. But Francis' actions only make sense in the context of meeting stiff resistance from some parts of the church, therefore by Occam's razor someone must be doing the resisting. Any institution as large and old as the Church (and there are very few peers) has a huge amount of institutional inertia, and being brought in specifically to be a reformer was bound to earn him some enemies.

[masklinn]

> As a Catholic this is news to me. I like the Pope, thought he was good. In fact I haven't heard any other Catholics I know criticize him.

It's possible that the catholics you hang out with are not the most conservative factions (e.g. the ones who still gnash teeth over Vatican II), which are the ones fuming over Francis.

[Toboe]

> In fact I haven't heard any other Catholics I know criticize him.

>I feel this article is trying to "Stir up a storm" with sensational language. There is little behind this in my opinion.

While i can't speak about the part of catholics you know, nor about conservative wings of the catholic church (and the size of said wing), there are atleast some US-Conservatives claiming to be catholic with grievances about the pope:

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/12/04/pope-francis-is-ca...

[0x4f3759df]

What Francis Really Believes (4th Edition) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvjmveYw0tE

[b0rsuk]

I invite you to visit Poland. One of the most - nominally - catholic countries.

A few months ago there was a radio show, with a quiz. "What town was the Pope born in ?". Naturally, Wadowice, because there's implicit understanding that John Paul II from Poland was the Pope. People rarely even mention Francis except to rant on him. There's full-blown denial. Most catholics seem to pretend Francis doesn't exist.

Poles like to brag how Catholic they are, but they're Catholic in name. Most don't follow teachings, they just went to church to avoid ostracism. Case in point: there was a media outrage when a prominent figure said Jesus was a refugee. When my brother was in primary school around 30 years ago, he was regularly beaten by his peers because he didn't want to attend religion lessons (in school, no less).

People bend over backwards to justify their xenophobic, homophobic, misogynist etc. behavior.

A major hierarch in Polish Church, Tadeusz Rydzyk, is 70% businessman 30% priest. He commands his own "schism" while pretending he is catholic. He has much influence among old, helpless, angry people. Despite blatantly engaging in politics (like many other priests), numerous instances of hate speech, antisemitism and other transgressions he remains in power, and Church doesn't expel him. The word is they deem him useful, because - although highly controversial - people listen to him. Geothermal energy, media schools, his own TV, and especially the radio station. His total income was recently estimated as 55,000,000 PLN (15.1184 million U.S. dollars). He's 88th on the list of the wealthiest Poles. And since autumn 2015 he received 26.5M + 139.6K + 250K + 710K + 200K + 105.2K + nearly 3M + 70.6K + 59.3K + 120K +11.6K + 216K PLN from various government institutions. Under various pretexts, like payment for coaching of judges, for his media school, newspapers. That's not counting tenders he regularly wins, or land he (and other priests) often buy at 10% or so of nominal value. His radio station doesn't run on advertisments, except ads of his own products and services. It runs on donations. And he constantly complains how little money he has.

https://oko.press/o-rydzyk-twierdza-ze-dostajemy-miliony-a-g... (polish)

Teachings of Jesus are hard to live by and demand self-sacrifice. Relatively poor (to the rest of Europe) and thus highly materialistic, envious, petty Poles don't like that. Love thy enemy ? If someone hits you, expose the other cheek ? Charity ? NO WAY. Once upon a time I had a twisted ankle, and walked slowly with crutches. Suddenly a car stopped by and the driver offered to give me a ride. Then it hit me - I've never received a similar offer before. You see, the driver spoke in English. It's hard to notice something is missing in your country until you've seen the difference.