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That’s also not a thing the Church teaches. The Pope is supposedly kept free from error by the Holy Spirit when speaking ex cathedra on matters of the faith, which has only happened twice in history, both in the 1800s, and both having to do with Mary.

If the church thought the Pope had a direct line to God, as the Mormons do with their Elders, the church would change a lot more frequently, as the Mormons do. Instead it’s more like the Supreme Court where they have to justify all their decisions based on previous council teachings, church law, the encyclicals or previous popes, etc. if this were not the case, we’d probably have women priests, gay marriage, and access to contraception under Francis.

There is a big synod happening right now in the church after a year of getting lay people’s inputs on the church. The laypeople tend to be to the left of the clergy so the big fear for conservative Catholics is that Francis is going to use the synod for grounding to change long-standing Church teachings on things like letting women be deacons. But the whole reason he is doing the synod is that he can’t just say “God told me women can be deacons now”

Pope Francis' role in the Church I think can best be understood as having the power and authority of the king as his representative while the king is absent.

This concept first appears in Isaiah 22, when Eliacim is given the authority of the house of David. (he was given the keys to the house of David btw)

I think this can be difficult for people in the modern west. In the United States especially Power and Authority are given by the people, not by God or some supreme authority. As others have said people think of the Pope as a president, instead of the supreme authority on earth. It's like that great Monty Python bit, when the King talks to peasants. The authority of the Pope is more ancient than democracy, not suggesting it is better because it is older just trying to point out why most Americans treat Pope Francis more like a politician than a religious authority figure.

I honestly think the Synod is an effort to respect more the opinions of the people, not an excuse for the Pope to change fundamental church teaching. I would be shocked if Pope Francis changed a fundamental teaching of the Church, he may lean left but he is far from radical.

This post was edited on 10/4/23 at 4:40 pm