re: #65 Political Atheist

On one hand we need the church to be more conservative-Crack down on the sex crimes. On the other we want a more progressive Pope for contraception, gay Priests, gay marriage. Then on top of all that they need a man smart with money, good at getting after the corruption that has apparently turned up in Vatican city.

That’s tough waters to navigate for a leader of a billion people at any age. I suspect just looking in from a very non Catholic perspective that like the Presidency the office (?) is far larger than any and all of it’s office holders.

Should I go out for Chinese food now?

I would not say that going after the sex crimes in the church is a conservative position —- in fact, the cover up is to benefit entrenched powers and interests, so ending the cover up would be a liberal/reforming position to take.

As evidence, we have two successive conservative popes who were pretty much useless on this issue.