In 2013, Pope Francis was elected the new head of the Roman Catholic Church. Since his election, Pope Francis has been involved with politics more than his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI. While many Catholics see The Pope’s involvement as a good thing, others disapprove of The Pope being involved with politics.

Personally, I have no problem with the Pope being vocal when it comes to politics. According to research done by the Vatican, there are about 1.2 billion Catholics in the world and Catholicism is also the largest denomination of Christianity. So with a large amount of people under his leadership, it would be important for the Pope to be involved with politics.

This would be important because with a diverse population of Roman Catholics all around the world, there are also a diverse set of governments that various Catholics are working under. This could be everywhere from The United States which has a constitution, to various European countries that are Monarchies or have a Parliamentary government, to even countries such as Cuba and Venezuela which have Communist governments. With all these different governments, it would be important for the Pope to keep up and be involved with what is going on to see if any political actions are affecting the Catholic Church inside of certain countries. Another thing is there are still parts of the world where Catholics are persecuted for their religious beliefs. If the Pope is involved with politics, he could be involved with these countries.

Though one of the reasons that this issue is so important is because when Pope Francis gives his opinions on politics, both sides of the media try to spin what he says to make him seem like he agrees with their agenda. For example, the Pope stated on the topic of homosexuality, he stated “who am I to judge” and when he said it, the media made it seem like he was endorsing same sex marriage and changing church doctrine as opposed to his real message of being more welcoming to everyone.

However, no matter how vocal he is in politics, one fact still stands: The Pope cannot change Catholic Doctrine even if he personally does not agree with it. The Pope can give his opinion politically but it does not affect what the church teaches. The Catholic Church doctrine has been set in stone for years and what is written and it does not change from Pope to Pope no matter what their opinions may be on an issue. So even if Pope Francis does endorse same sex marriage, it wouldn’t change the way the position that the Catholic Church takes on the issue.

The Pope also has spoken about has been the theory of evolution. While the Pope has stated that he believes that the theory of evolution doesn’t contradict church teaching, this statement doesn’t mean that the Catholic Church now endorses the theory of evolution as church teaching.

What it comes down to is that the Catholic Church isn’t going to change what they’re been teaching for hundreds of years just because the Pope may or may not have different views on certain issues.