The backward-looking, reactionary Catholic Church of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI were the pride of backward-looking, reactionary Catholics for more than two decades. With the installation of Pope Francis, the so-called "traditionalists" (misogynistic bedroom police, among other things)
are having fits. They're rubbing their rosaries over the Pope's ongoing displays of -- horrors! -- modesty and compassion for the poor. From using (non-Prada) shoe leather vs. the Popemobile, to washing and kissing the feet of -- the shame! --
wimmens, Pope Francis has departed from the aloof, self-indulgent model of recent popes and cardinals.
For the traditionalists, aiding the poor and sick and rejecting materialism is akin to
Socialism!, and they want their Pope to return to the good old gilded days of protecting pedophile priests, misappropriating the Church's huge wealth, and keeping women (especially nuns) in their proper place. This Pope won't be another John XXIII, but he's much more in tune with what his Savior teaches than the "traditionalists."
