Why even atheists should be praying for Pope Francis

[MineralMan]

73. In the first place, atheists don't pray.

So you're starting off on the wrong foot already. Secondly, the Pope and his Roman Catholic Church remain bastions of intolerance for many people, including women and LGBT people, along with everyone who believes in reproductive choice. There is no sign of change in those areas by this current Pope, so I can see nothing about him worth celebrating at all.

Despite his gestures toward some downtrodden minorities, he continues to support intolerance for many others, including those atheists you call on to "pray" for him. Here in the Minneapolis St. Paul area, the RCC, led by its Archbishop, has been covering up child abuse by priests for decades and the extent of that abuse is just now beginning to be understood. Children are another group that has been treated with far less than proper consideration by this Pope's church. Where is he with regard to those problems? How is an Archbishop who has been complicit in covering up sexual abuse of children still in office. What will this pope you praise do about that situation.

I am an atheist. I do not pray for anyone. Instead, I demand of people like this Pope that they support the rights of all people, not just the ones who are convenient for him to support.

Feh!