Speak for yourself! I appreciate the reminder that many of the so-called Vicars of Christ - those men Roman Catholics INSIST are chosen by the Holy Spirit to lead and guide all Christians - have been some of the most depraved, wicked and debauched group of men ANY religion could ever claim. Frankly...I'm surprised how many of y'all just brush it off as if "everybody's a sinner...la, la, la...". Do YOU actually believe these men were hand picked by God to lead you? If someone was named Pope today and did the kind of things these guys did, would YOU still want to remain a Catholic? Wouldn't SOMETHING tell you there's something wrong going on? It's no accident that many of these Popes times culminated in the Reformation. God WAS trying to tell someone something!
Well do you believe that Jesus hand picked Judas?
add up the number of years that these men were church leaders in the last 2,014 years of the church....a miniscule number to be sure.....these men were elected by other men, maybe personal freindship came into play, maybe a few of them were community organizers who lived in chicago, maybe some of the electors were misguided, as were many honest, sincere American citizens.....The Holy Spirit guides, He does not demand....you are always free to ignore God's calling and say "no"....men have done it forever.