What if we got a Pope who got out of the threat/coercion game? The Catholic Church no longer threatens people with hellfire and damnation, but the implication is still there that if you do thus-and-so, you'll go to hell. If they didn't threaten people, they could work to convince people by reason, telling people why doing thus-and-such would or would not be a good thing to do. They could oppose divorce by saying it's horrible for the children and showing people how to resolve their differences, but recognize that some marriages do fail and people need to be able to start over without going through a duplicitous annulment process.

The Catholic Church could give good, rational reasons why people may not want to practice birth control - and there are some - without resorting to the "because we said so" argument. It could continue to oppose the use of condoms without looking really stupid, and it could continue to oppose gay marriage without looking bigoted.

If the Pope and bishops really believe that what they are teaching on morals (particularly sex and marriage issues about which they are notoriously lacking in qualifications), then they could rely on reason and good will to deal with these moral issues - not threats.
What a concept! Heck, if they did this, they might gain back some of the credibility they lost in the child molestation scandal.

-Joe-

(revised from my Facebook post)