Pope Francis: RIP

Sad. There were a lot of things I liked about him - he cared about the environment, cared about the poor, cared about refugees. He seemed to care about substance over style.

But I feel I must say that there were a lot of things I didn't like too, and though he has passed away, I don't think we should accept the idea put forth that he was a "reformer" pope.

Francis could have allowed women to become priests, but instead he insisted that women would never be priests in the Catholic church. He could have allowed women to be deacons, but he put roadblocks in front of that too. In fact, he made clear in his writings that a woman's purpose in life is basically to reproduce.

Francis could have limited the damage done by pedophile priests by making priests madatory reporters to the police of sex abuse. He wouldn't. Instead he allowed guys like Cardinal Law to hide out in Vatican City with immunity from prosecution.

Francis could have had the church accept the relationships of gay people, could have accepted gay couples adopting children. Instead he wrote/spoke against these things.

Francis could have changed the policy that keeps divorced Catholics who have remarried from taking communion. Didn't. Instead people must still pay an arm and a leg to buy an annulment, a cynical end run around the rules.

Pope Francis didn't reform the church (in my opinion) but he was a good person who cared about other people and about the planet. Sorry to see him go.