The Pope can stomp his bright red Prada loafers all he wants - American Catholics aren't listening to him

I have always maintained that most of the people who sit in the pews of the Catholic Church every Sunday don't buy into every single tidbit of Catholic doctrine that has been drilled into them their entire lives. Be it the Catholic Church's stance on birth control or divorce & re-marriage or women's health issues or a whole miriad of other issues, there has always been an attitude among most Catholics I know that while they love the church enough to remain a Catholic, they don't always agree with everything the Church teaches. And on those issues they don't agree with? They simply choose to ignore them and continue living their lives in the 21st century.

So it thrills me to no end to see that American Catholics are yet again parting ways with their leadership on the issue of gays and lesbians. Seems a big majority of the Catholic faithful filling the pews on Sunday (and the ones skipping Mass as well) are simply not swayed one bit by all the anti-gay hatred and homophobia that flows freely from the mouths of this Pope and the obedient hierarchy below him.

I wonder at what point this Pope is going to get it? Catholics are going to continue to take birth control, get divorced, get remarried, and ignore all of the other issues with which they disagree. So if the Church chooses to continue condemning our glbtq friends, neighbors, and loved ones as "intrinsically evil" and "objectively disordered" sinners, Catholics will simply add this issue to their list of things to be ignored -- if they don't walk away first.

I am one of the ones who could not continue ignoring. I had to walk away. It had become impossible to walk through the doors of a Church whose leader tells me that my precious son is evil simply because of who he loves. But it is oh so gratifying to see that American Catholics who have chosen to remain in the church don't check their brains at the door each time they go to Mass. This Pope is going to need more than bright red Prada loafers to convince Catholics that he has the moral authority to condemn anyone simply because of whom they choose to love.