Recently, the Guardian ran an opinion piece entitled " https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/05/world-leaders-immorality-pope-leo-war-criminals-corporations-catholic-church" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The immorality of world leaders is contagious. Thank heavens for the pope" written by Simon Tisdall. The caption under the head reads "In a political wasteland dominated by billionaires, war criminals and mega-corporations, the head of the Catholic church is a rare figure of moral leadership." It is true that the leaders of the world are increasingly immoral, but what is Tisdall's measure of morality that he believes the Pope stands the test against? 

If we use the Christian standard, the Pope (who proclaims to be Christian) fails the test. If he fails the test on being moral according to the Christian standard, then he is a hypocrite which is one of the first thing that calls a leader's morality into question.

In the Bible, Micah 6:8 says that the Lord has shown us "what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" Let us see how the Pope measures up against that test of morality.

What does it mean to "do justly"? The first time that the phrase that is translated as "justly" in Micah 6:8 is used is in Genesis 18:19. Here, Abraham is commended for commanding his family after him to "keep the way of the Lord." What is the way of the Lord? It is the way that He has defined in His Word - the Bible. Does the Pope point people to God's word as the sole source of authority? No. Catholic tradition has in some cases equal and, in many cases, greater importance in the eyes of the Roman Catholic church than God's word (e.g. the proclaiming of Sunday as the Lord's day when Jesus called the seventh-day Sabbath the Lord's day  (Matthew 12:8)). The Pope also seeks to override the voice of God to the conscience of the believer. Just recently, he excommunicated clerics and lay members of the Roman Catholic Church who chose to follow their convictions to return to the traditional Latin liturgy, but for centuries, the church has excommunicated and caused to be martyred many a protestant who chose to follow the dictates of the Bible and their conscience. Not once have the current or previous Popes acknowledged the atrocities of that error or called them what they are: antichristian.

How does the Pope measure up on loving mercy? Genesis 19:19 tells how the Lord magnified His mercy toward Lot by helping him escape the sin and condemnation of Sodom. Does the Pope point others to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ as the only means of escaping from sin and condemnation? No. The Pope either promotes the Roman Catholic church as the path to salvation or suggests that there are many paths to salvation, found equally in all types of religions, whether Christian or otherwise. In John 14:6 Jesus tells us that He is the only way, the only truth, and the only life - there is salvation found in no other.

Now, let's look at the last measure that Micah 6:8 puts forth: humility. Jesus was humble. He had nowhere to lay his head (Matthew 8:20). A walk through the Vatican reveals that there are not only plenty of places to lay one's head, but there is also plenty of gold and extravagant wealth. Last year, the Roman Pontiff earned a https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2026-05/institute-works-religion-2025-annual-report-statistics.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tidy 24.3 million euro dividend from Holy See investments. When you consider the billions of people who are starving and dying due to abject poverty, the insane amount of wealth that surrounds the empire that is the Roman Catholic church is sickening. What makes it even more absurd is when, with all that wealth, they continue to ask for more money from their parishioners (many of whom are already poverty-stricken). Estimates of the wealth of the Roman Catholic church and its entities across the world places it https://archive.org/details/VaticanBillionsFull/vatican%20billions%20avro%20manhattan%201983/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">as the most wealthiest entity that exists on this planet. Then they sit in a position of supposed higher morality, suggesting to the rest of the world that they are being selfish and greedy. 

What sort of morality was Tisdall thanking heaven for? It is a spoken morality only, filled with appealing rhetoric. However, it lacks the fundamental principles of what would make it truly moral: a life that resembles that of Jesus Christ, the most moral being this world has ever seen. Does this mean that the Pope is lost and unable to be redeemed? No, but it does mean that he is no more a moral leader than any other leader in the world. It means that we can no more look to the Pope than we can look to any other fallen human being. It means that the Pope is as in need of the saving and transformative power of Jesus Christ as all of us.