As a Lutheran I have plenty of things to say about where I believe the papacy, as an institution, is problematic. But it's entirely unrelated to pictures like this.
And, yes, I do think Pope Francis is a humble person.
I think it is important, as a Lutheran, to make a distinction between the papacy as an institution and the historic criticisms of it from a Lutheran POV and the individual person who inhabits that institution. Further, I make a distinction between the legitimacy of St. Peter's Chair and the illegitimacy of the papal abuses which have been done int he name of St. Peter's Chair.
The Pope, validly, sits in St. Peter's seat as successor to St. Peter.
The Pope, illegitimately, claims supreme authority over the Church, contrary to Scripture, the writings of the Fathers, and the Canons and Councils of the ancient and holy catholic Church.
It is that illegitimacy that is problematic from the perspective of non-Roman Catholic Christians such as the Eastern Churches and Lutherans.
Problematically is that there is a lot of anti-Catholic propaganda that has been propped up in some Protestant circles for the past few centuries, which results in a lot of invalid criticisms of the papacy and ultimately treats Catholicism as though it weren't Christian at all. I consider such anti-Catholic propaganda to be, in many cases, even more problematic today than the papacy itself--as such propaganda in trying to be anti-Catholic frequently simply becomes anti-Christian.
-CryptoLutheran
