The death of Catholicism.

[Wyrd of Gawd]

The thing you've got to remember about the Junta pope is that he's more pr savvy than what preceded him, but theologically little difference exists, between him and, say, pope Nazi. You have to look not at what he is saying to the secular western media, but what he says to people he securely believes are true followers. What he is telling them are the same messages peddled by the rcc since the 1860's. Look at what he said when in the Philippines a few years ago, his message was misogynistic and homophobic baiting, or even his hour long chat with your one who wouldn't do her job and issue marriage certs to gay couples.

He's clever enough to know that if he lays on enough smaltz and doublespeak the western media will be too lazy to investigate his true message.

He certainly does speak out of "both ends" at times.  But, consider the "gay" question.  Considering that the Catholic Church condemned the "sin of Sodom" for over 2 millennia, how can the Church now embrace "gay love" without folks coming along and saying that the Church is contradicting itself?  And, if the Church contradicts itself (which, of course, it does and has), is not such evidence that it is just another man-made institution and not one founded upon any sort of divine "revelation"; and if so, why bother with it?  Speaking from a "person in the pew" perspective here.  As an atheist, I am definitively not trying to "defend" it; only surmising why Catholics may abandon it entirely and their reasons for doing so.

They started losing members when they stopped burning witches alive.