I’m not sure Pope Francis is the most Catholic of Catholic popes. I’m certain many previous popes would have excommunicated him by now.

I guess it boils down to:

1. Does the current pope dictate God’s actions? Especially when the current pope’s dictates differ so radically from the pope two generations ago?
2. Is the Catholic God that mercurial? A few centuries ago, you’d be tortured into confessing to atheism and then burnt on a stake, but now it’s A-Okay and you can go to heaven as long as you had good intentions?

I’m sure there’s a 3 and 4, but honestly I feel like there would be some Benedictine and Jesuit monks in here debating the finer points.

The Pope is God’s voice in Earth; that’s the dogma, I guess. But it’s hard to reconcile the messages of Francis and Paul VI.