The right attitude towards the Pope

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All over the internet among people I would consider faithful Catholics, I see a great disparity in how the Pope is viewed. As a nearly Catholic it can be quite befuddling. I don’t see the same disparity among the real life Catholics I know, it seems principally an internet thing.
Some defend everything he says to the point of hero worship. Still others can’t help picking apart every utterance to see what heresies they can find. And in-between these two ends are a variety of differing attitudes.
Personally, I am inclined to listen carefully to him as a wise shepherd, the successor to Peter and so on. I find some of what he says to be quite hard to understand, but have always assumed the confusion to be on my part.
What is the correct attitude to have towards the Pope? Forgive me if this is a silly question, I just see so many arguments about it and don’t really just want to base things on my fumbled understanding of it.
 
Respect for the person and office of the Pope.
Full assent of faith to his infallible teachings.
Religious submission of will and intellect to his non-infallible teachings.
Obedience to his decisions on discipline.

But we can disagree, respectfully, with his personal theological opinions. A faithful Catholic can opine that a decision of the Pope on discipline is perhaps not the best option. Some licit theological dissent is possible, to a limited extent, concerning any non-infallible magisterial teaching.

But the attitude that some persons are taking, in their public expressions toward Pope Francis, is not acceptable: to speak as if all of his teachings and decisions are subject to their judgment; to speak as if he should submit to their understanding of the faith; to speak as if their understanding could not err when they are in disagreement with the Roman Pontiff.
 
I believe its a psychological problem for some. How can you maintain your online appearance of head psuedo intellectual unless you find fault with your betters? It’s not just here, many papers don’t even allow comments on their online editions because of this problem.

Give the people true freedom of speech and all they want to do is use it to bash each other.
 
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I think many Catholics would be wise to listen to his words rather than what the media pushes.

I think it’s also not bad if you simply don’t like the charism of the Pope. I really struggled with Pope Benedict’s love of all things tradition because the traditional community around me was very cruel to the point where I was told I could not attend Mass because I was a female wearing slacks (not jeans, dress pants). So it really hurt when those people were empowered to be crueler in their righteousness.

With this Pope, I think many people dislike him for a similar reason. People have taken his words and become cruel with them.
 
Neither papolatry nor papal contempt with regard to the office.
Anything further, have exactly the attitude toward him that you would wish others to have toward you, knowing that both of you are God’s beloved children and that each of you has a God-given purpose in life which you are to accomplish for God’s glory and for which you will be responsible at the end of your life on earth.
And always pray for him. My 2 cents.
 
The correct attitude is based on an understanding of the physical realities of the world, i.e., a limited biosphere, increasing human population coupled with increased environmental degradation, and the rise of both materialism and increasing arms production and deployment.
 
I believe the correct attitude includes respect. We should never talk judgementally about the Holy Father, like mentioning what we think is in his heart, just as we shouldn’t do this to anyone else either. But we also show a certain respect. If there’s something that bothers someone about the Pope or any priest, I believe the right thing is praying for them… God is their judge. We just pray and show the respect we owe to their office
 
I think the best attitude is to realize he has a tough job and pray for him to do it well and hold things together, whether you agree with him or like him or not.

If one has a big disagreement with him, then you can pray that God will influence him more towards your position, and also just generally pray for him because we’re supposed to pray for our “enemies”. And in addition pray that God gives you the grace of increasing your own understanding of a viewpoint that you just don’t get or don’t like.
 
No one has ever gone astray by following the Pope.

Billions of people have gone astray by disobeying the Pope.

The choice is obvious.
 
And this has what to do with the right attitude toward the Pope? it seems you are only concerned with one thing out of many which he has said, and that you’re only speaking about what our attitude to his statements in Laudatio Si should be in your opinion.
 
Ah, excellent. Regards for the office, but love for him as a person, just as I would anyone. Thank you.
 
Thanks everyone. You all helped clarify my understanding of the matter.
 
People need to realize their first duty is to the Truth, as stated in the 10 Commandments to God and to Jesus, not to any head of state or office.

We should listen to the Pope as we should be good listeners to most anyone. Most problems start because people in their selfish arrogance refuse to listen.
 
Saint Catherine of Siena:

“For divine obedience never prevents us from obedience to the Holy Father: nay, the more perfect the one, the more perfect is the other. And we ought always to be subject to his commands and obedient unto death. However indiscreet obedience to him might seem, and however it should deprive us of mental peace and consolation, we ought to obey; and I consider that to do the opposite is a great imperfection, and deceit of the devil.”

http://www.drawnbylove.com/Scudder letters.htm
 
i believe that this Pope needs to be more specific about what he says because sometimes the News reporters confuse things. Its very simple, dont generalize things, instead be more specific.
 
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