Pope Francis' Catholic Model

Pope Francis is making another world tour and among the many places to which he traveled was the U.S.  And it seems less a spiritual tour and more a political/social one. This pope is a different type from his predecessors, who tried to focus on spiritual matters while leaving the temporal to the politicians and world leaders. So Francis hasn't changed church doctrine. Instead,  he has taken more liberal stances on issues like abortion, gay marriage and climate change because these are the trendy ones that have struck a chord that resonate with younger Catholics.

It's a wise move, intended or not, to bring more young back into the Catholic Church, given the young have virtually abandoned Catholicism. In these days the masses are much more likely to pray with the church if the church panders to the issues that the young want to address. Fort example, in contrast to Catholicism's view that gay sexuality is a mortal sin to be denounced and opposed by Catholics, Francis told the Vatican  press, “If someone is gay and searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”

And then this spring, he released a paper on climate change, in which he supported a partnership between science and religion to stem the tide of climate change. He's a believer in the climate change narrative and seems to suggest Catholics must believe as well. Francis has also granted priests around the world the right to forgive the “sin of abortion” during the “year of mercy,” which is set to begin in December. But his main theme since has been poverty and the distribution of wealth. (This despite the fact that the Pope sits on top the greatest single amount of wealth in the world, the Vatican treasures that are worth trillions but that have never been sold to "help the poor" as Pope Francis claims he wants Catholics to do)

To many Catholics those issues seem to be non theological or are religious based in Church law. They believe the Pope is infallible in spiritual, not social issues. The question arises as to whether a pope should mix religion with political and social agendas. Francis was a socialist before joining the (also socialist modeled)  Jesuit order of the Catholic Church. His dislike of capitalism is open, as Francis sees capitalism as creating an unequal distribution of wealth and too much poverty. This is contrast to all empirical evidence that capitalism is the economic system which does that the least. But when your pope says to take action against the capitalist economic model, are you obligated to do so if you are Catholic?

Too, I wonder if the Catholic Church, having lost so much power and so many members this century to the attracts of the modern, temporal world, might become more a political organization to attract a new segment of members to the church.  Catholics might wonder if one day their Church demands they give up their gas powered cars (the climate change bit)  give their savings to the poor or even vote to approve public funding for abortion. Well, that new Catholic Church surely would be a different one. Have a nice day! How is everything