T HE Catholic Church confuses me. I see the Pope coming to Britain with all the pomp and grandeur of a monarch and I feel alienated. This is surely not how a leader of the Church of Jesus Christ should present himself.

But then I think about the priests and people I know in Catholic churches who are down to earth and concerned about the poor and I wonder if they belong to the same church.

As a Methodist I feel I have quite a lot in common with Catholics. We are both outside the established church which still often manages to make us feel like outsiders. Maybe that's why we tend to be in sympathy with the disadvantaged. We share a personal, sometimes mystical, approach to spirituality. The way we do liturgy is unfussy.

I have been influenced by Catholic liberation theology from Latin America which says that the church must be on the side of the poor as Jesus was. Priests sit with their people and read the Bible as a story about God setting the oppressed free and challenging the rich and powerful. But that often set them on a collision course with hierarchy.

In Bristol the multiracial church in Easton, St Nicholas, led by Fr Richard Mckay, is a beacon in the city with its support for asylum seekers and refugees. The Catholic Church's statements about world issues – the Iraq invasion, war and peace, racism, poverty and capitalism have led the world. But on issues of gender equality, contraception, homosexuality, celibacy and dealing with sexual abuse, it is in a world of its own that I find hard to understand.

And by all accounts many in the Catholic Church itself are not happy either. Polls taken for the Pope's visit indicate that over half don't agree with the stand on women being banned from the priesthood and male priests not being allowed to marry.

Is there not a serious gulf between the leadership in the Vatican and the church on the ground? Churches expect their leaders to give leadership which will not always be popular, but they will not be able to remain out of step with those they lead for too long on too many issues.

Jesus' model of leadership contradicts the regal model of the papacy. His power was the power of truth and love. He made himself vulnerable and defenceless. He spent his time with the poor, the sick and the outcasts of society. He said children were the first in his kingdom. He signalled that women were no longer second-class citizens.

That wandering, penniless prophet challenges all our Churches about our comfortable lifestyles and unfaithful leadership. All of us contradict our beliefs by our actions.

Today it is the turn of the Catholic Church to be put under the spotlight. I pray its leaders will listen.