Pope Francis’ papacy was born out of change. He is the first pope to choose the name Francis after St. Francis of Assisi, a figure renowned for not only his humility but also his charisma. Pope Francis is following very much in the saint’s humble path, making conscious choices to live in the smallest Vatican apartments and wear simple silver rings. I would, however, also make the argument that Pope Francis is also following the diplomacy and charisma of St. Francis. This was the saint that, despite choosing to live in poverty, also went to Egypt to try to convert the sultan to Catholicism. 

Pope Francis is widely beloved, especially by Americans. A CNN International poll estimates that 88 percent of Americans approve of Pope Francis, more than twice the past pope’s approval rating. 

What is striking about this statistic is that it encompasses all Americans, not just American Catholics. During his tenure as pope, Francis has attracted American acclaim for controversial statements. In a July 2013 press conference, he said “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge? We shouldn’t marginalise people for this. They must be integrated into society.” This effortlessly fits into the current American political climate, where the Pew Research Center finds that 74 percent of millennials are in favor of gay marriage, and same-sex marriage is being legalized at a rapid rate. 

This past Monday marked a huge milestone in the quasi-revolution occurring within the Catholic Church. The Extraordinary Synod of Bishops, convening throughout the month of October, released a document welcoming queer community members and lessening the church’s historic disapproval on abortion and gay marriage. The synod suggested that these groups could potentially receive the important sacrament of communion. 

As with Pope Francis’ previous statements—and to be clear, this synod is supervised and heavily influenced by the Pope—the new document seems particularly targeted to reach the young. It praises the family, a unit typically associated with those more settled in life, but specifies that “the desire for family remains alive, especially among the young.” Of course, the Catholic Church is not yet of the mindset of free love and condoms for all. Nonetheless, it is a huge rhetorical shift, if not actual change. 

On Saturday, perhaps unsurprisingly, the synod document was rejected entirely by a vote of 200 bishops. However, as a member of the synod’s target audience—a millenial hoping and advocating for more accepting social policies and a lapsed Catholic—I was neither surprised nor heartbroken by this ruling. 

One need only look at the recent history of the church to find reason for skepticism. 

Pope John Paul II, who was pope until his death in 2005, previously called homosexuality an “unnatural vision of man” and divorce a “[mentality] one cannot give in to” and actively opposed both throughout his almost 30-year papacy. 

This man is now Saint John Paul the Great, much adored and respected within the Catholic community. Perhaps even more important than a singular statement made by the late John Paul II are the years of sexual abuse perpetuated by the Vatican and likely covered up by Pope Benedict XVI. 

So why now? After literally thousands of years of essentially unchanging policy, the Catholic Church’s move toward tolerance is not, I think, happenstance. The obvious answer, I believe, is that Catholicism has gradually been dying out in English speaking countries for the past several decades. Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate estimates that in 1965, 55 percent of American Catholics attended Mass regularly. By 2014, that number is down to 24 percent. This is not the only way the church is slowly sighing its last breath. Both the number of American nuns and monks are a third of what they were in 1965, and the number of priests ordained in 2014 in the U.S. was 494. That is a pitifully low number, especially considering the 3,496 Catholic churches without a resident priest in the U.S.—up substantially from 549 in 1965. 

From these statistics, it is painfully obvious that young people do not want to participate in Catholic life. Logically, then, it makes sense for the Vatican to target this demographic. But the gesture feels meaningless. Millennials on the whole are years ahead of the Catholic Church in their political opin-ions. Why tell me about divorce when NPR reports that 55 percent of those under 35 don’t even bother getting married before having kids? How can the Catholic Church tell me to welcome “homosexuals” when my peers and I have actively campaigned for gay rights for years? 

More than this, however, I feel a bit nihilistic when it comes to this proposed policy shift because the religious figures making these decisions are not being genuine. This is reflected in the synod’s rejection by over 200 bishops. Even Pope Francis seems insincere. While serving as an Argentinian cardinal, the supposedly liberal Pope Francis actively opposed same-sex marriage. 

As the supreme pontiff, despite a few public statements and some symbolism, his actual policies have only come to reinforce traditional Catholic bans on abortion, artificial contraception and homosexuality. He is a firm supporter of Pope Paul IV, who in his Humanae Vitae, said “married love is fecund” and who strictly defined marriage as between “a husband and wife.” 

Catholicism, like any political entity, makes decisions based on what maximizes the personal gain of those in the highest echelon of its society. Their power and wealth are entirely dependent on the number of Catholics. Many decisions in the Catholic Church are thus irrevocably tied up in the personal whims of the complicated church hierarchy and not necessarily for the common good. 

At the end of the day, I crave a church I can respect, that makes warm decisions properly interpreting the words of Jesus Christ for the good of the congregation. And to be fair, you can easily find this sincerity and warmth with hundreds of priests across the country. The Catholic services at Brandeis are beautiful and I highly encourage everyone, even non-Catholics, to attend at least once. 

But the church does not often bend to the will of its parishioners. What I want is a church that says it welcomes change and then actually enacts it. Right now, I see a church that is making desperate prom-ises to save a dwindling population, rendering this synod useless.