Francis was a terrible pope – examples of the problematic nature of his pontificate abound, from his offhand comments, to his choice of close advisors, to his official acts. It would be impossible to list them all, but a small sampling should suffice to demonstrate the failings of his reign.
I remember distinctly the day Jorge Bergoglio was elected pope. Working for a diocese, I was in the middle of a meeting with an older woman and a deacon. They wanted to know if they could start a support group for families with members who were same-sex attracted. The woman’s son was a practicing homosexual, and she wanted to support him in his lifestyle (i.e., endorse sin). I was in the process of putting the kibosh on this idea when we were interrupted, “White smoke!”
Like most American Catholics, I had no idea who Jorge Bergoglio was, so I was open-minded about the new Francis pontificate. But before long I was having misgivings. Only a few months into his pontificate, Francis uttered the infamous “Who am I to judge?” line, and just a few weeks later, that older woman and the deacon were back in my office, insisting that the Church had changed. Why shouldn’t they be allowed to have their pro-LGTBQ group? Even the pope was on their side now!
Picking up my kibosh where I’d left off, I explained why the group they envisioned could not be approved by the diocese, giving an explanation of what the Church actually teaches about sexuality as a rational basis. I concluded with the soon-to-become-familiar “I think what Pope Francis really meant was…,” but I did have an uneasy feeling that this pontificate was going to make my job a lot harder. Little did I know.
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