Pope Francis is changing people's lives

[Jim Lane]

7. On one not-so-minor point, you're out of date.

You hope "that it will be easier some portion of our planet's 1.2 billion Catholics to feel closer to the other 4.8 billion of us."

I remember for years using 6 billion as the rough number for Earth's population. In approximately October of 2011, though, we hit 7 billion, with no halt to the relentless increase seen in the near future. (One common projection is that we stabilize at around 9 billion a few decades from now.)

This isn't completely tangential to your post about Pope Francis. The Catholic Church continues to exert its considerable power to resist reproductive rights (contraception and abortion), and thus contributes to the population growth that is so inimical to just about any sensible policy goal one can name.

As an agnostic, I join you in welcoming Francis's rejection of the Church's past attitudes toward non-Catholics. That doesn't get him a free pass on the other stuff, though.