Theocrats.

www.AndrewSullivan.com - Daily Dish: "My own view is that dissent on some moral teachings is perfectly compatible with being a Catholic, as long as you don't differ on the central tenets. What John Paul II and Benedict XVI have done is drastically increase the scope and content of those central tenets until there's little oxygen left for conscience, dissent or theological freedom. That was and is the problem. Only more oxygen will allow the church to breathe and grow. Conservatives and liberals would benefit from the debate."

Thank you Andrew Sullivan! The Church should be focusing more on Love, prayer, and praise--telling us what to do, not what NOT to do and cultivating hatred and exclusion.

He also brings up a good point that JPII and Benedict XVI are both not on the liberal conservative spectrum in that they are moving towards more absolutist stances on war and the death penalty--which is a good thing since these are just as much life issues as what's presently being focused on. Of course, if there is truth in Andrew's assertions that other periphery issues like female priests are rising to the level of "papal infallibility" in banning them, there's a major problem, and the Church leaders are using a bogus power created by themselves to gross misuse. The Church is a shepherd and a guiding force--NOT a dictator.