The best choice for pope? A nun.

[ButterflyBlood]

39. Here's the two big issues I see with the example:

The first is that the Episcopal Church actually has a semi-democratic structure, laity are allowed to vote on issues and have a say. The Catholic structure is very specifically top down with no input from the laity. It's actually a similar form to the Soviet Union's government, and we saw plenty of Soviet defectors, but no one insisting that it could be reformed from within.

The second is that if you add all the reforms people want to the Catholic Church, you basically have the Episcopal Church. The difference becomes pointless. Imagine if the Republicans and Democrats adopted the exact same platform. What's the point? I guarantee if that happened you'd see tons of conservative schisms. Now I know most liberal Catholics probably wouldn't be bothered by this, but you then basically will be left with a church just the same as the Episcopal Church. So why bother with that instead of becoming Episcopalian?

This is like someone insisting on trying to reform the Republican Party instead of just becoming a Democrat.