Francis: The Consolations I Received From My Visitors Never Reached My Heart

"If you really believe this man is pope, how then do you pick and choose when to obey him?"

I do, and I pick and choose when to obey him using a.) Canon Law and b.) The Catechism Of The Catholic Church.

The same is true for the many bishops around the world, much to Pope Francis' endless irritation. Just because Pope Francis lends his "support" to this error or that one doesn't automatically require every diocese on the planet to fully embrace and adopt that error. Catholic Bishops understand that as do educated Catholic laity.

"And how then do you criticize him all the time?"

...because acknowledging Pope Francis -is- Pope does not preclude criticizing his actions -as- Pope.

Returning to your previous question... similarly, acknowledging Pope Francis -is- Pope does not preclude ignoring his opinionswhen he espouses errors, advocates errors, or shares an erroneous opinion supporting the errors of others. It is entirely licit for Catholics to do so. We may mindfully and respectfully pay attention to the errors he's prsented, in fact, as Catholics we have a duty to do so lest those errors cause others to stray. But nowhere we spiritually or legally obligated to follow Pope Francis' errors simply because they're his.

Ex Cathedra statements by the Pope, so often the bane of so many non-Catholics, are in truth incredibly rare.

Since you're posting from a US-based account, I'll give you example out of US politics.

Barack Obama was a horrible Marxist president. The fact he was horrible and Marxist doesn't change the fact he -was- the president. Likewise, I picked and chose when to obey Mr. Obama according to US Law.

Mr. Obama expressing his opinion that all Americans should help the poor as much as we can was not a ratified US law requiring me to do so. Just because Mr. Obama was president, didn't preculde me (and every other poltical conservative) from criticizing him all the time either.

"The vile popes, actual popes, of the past never assaulted the Faith...

Reconcile that claim with Saint Pope John Paul II kissing the Quran and praising the foul pagan diety Pachamama. Then reconcile your claim with Benedict XVI praying to the foul pagan diety Allah in a mosque with non-Christians.

When you're done with all of that then, show how Vatican Council II -wasn't- an assault on the Catholic Faith, either in initial intent nor in actual subsequent results. Good luck with that. ;-)

However, it's vital you do so since every Pope since the 60s has embraced and supported the work of that Council. None of them have repudiated or abolished the reforms of Vatican Council II.

If Vatican Council II is an assault on the Catholic Faith, then every Pope since its conclusion is guilty fo assaulting the Faith by endorsing and perpetuating it.