The enemy of my enemy, heh Paul?

It doesn't require much thinking and that's just the way Paul likes it.

"It is now estimated that there are approximately 450 million Christians who no longer consider themselves part of the establishment churches".

Good to hear. The church bureaucracy is now just like any other bureaucracy: to be avoided at all costs.

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Dear Graham,

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At least 80% of surveyed U.S. Catholics expressed a favourable opinion of Francis in 10 of 15 polls conducted by the Pew Research Center between 2013, when he became pope, and February 9, 2025. His highest favourability rating was 90% in February 2015.

As of 2025, the number of Catholics worldwide is approximately 1.4 billion. This reflects a growth from about 1.39 billion in 2022 to 1.406 billion in 2023.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 20% of Australians declare themselves to be Catholics.

I guess non-Catholic Australians have their own champions, idols, gurus, or whatever …

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mhaze,

The Church getting mixed up in politics isn’t some new thing. It’s been happening forever - emperors, kings, revolutions - you name it. The only real difference today is that the Church is speaking up on issues some people don’t want it talking about.

It’s easy to call it "politicisation" when the Church focuses on things like poverty, climate change, or migration. But it’s not politics for its own sake - it’s rooted in basic Gospel values. If anything, Francis was trying to drag the Church back to its actual foundations: caring for the vulnerable, not preserving comfort for the powerful.

You also seem nostalgic for the days when the Church was dripping with wealth and political influence, but that’s part of what alienated people in the first place. Francis understood that. His push wasn't about chasing relevance with trends - it was about credibility through humility. A lot of people found that refreshing, not alienating.

Yeah, millions of Christians have moved outside traditional denominations. But it’s not because the Church cared too much about justice or mercy. It’s because they saw too little of it from the institutions that were supposed to embody it.

If the Church loses ground in the future, it won't be because of Popes like Francis. It'll be because too many people mistook nostalgia for faith.

mhaze,

<<The enemy of my enemy, heh Paul?>> Not at all, who exactly are my enemy, people who promote injustice in this world they are the true enemy. The Catholic Church as an institution, and some individuals within that church, have much to answer for on the score of injustice, Pope Frances failed in some areas, the roll of women within the church for example, but succeeded in others, he did well at highlighting the plight of refugees and the marginalised in society, his condemnation of war was an achievement in itself.

p/s Don't you think the attendance of the Antichrist, Donald Trump, was rather hypocritical?

"You also seem nostalgic for the days when the Church was dripping with wealth and political influence, "

Do I? Where dd I say anything remotely like that? Do you just make this rubbish up or are your comprehension skills truly that bad?

"Francis was trying to drag the Church back to its actual foundations: caring for the vulnerable, not preserving comfort for the powerful."

Actually the "actual foundations" of the Roman Church was to further the evangelistic mission around the word of Christ and Paul. All else is and was secondary and a consequence of giving your life to the deity. The church hierarchies in Rome and Canterbury have lost sight of that and that's why millions are flocking to so-called New Age churches.

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Paul, who doesn't believe in a Christ, somehow believes in an anti-Christ. Double-think lives in the beating heart of the unthinking TDS adherents.