CATHOLICISM IN CRISIS - CAN THE VATICAN CHANGE?

The world, particularly the Catholic world, has been jolted by the unexpected resignation of Pope Benedict XV1. Popes just don’t resign, as we have been told ad nauseam – the last one being Pope Gregory in the 14 hundreds. The latter resigned at a time of great upheaval in the Church known as the Great Schism where two contenders were claiming the papacy.

Pope Benedict did nothing to lessen the gravitas of his decision. He stated that he was communicating a matter of, “… great importance to the church.” He then stated that he was doing so as “his strengths were no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine Ministry.” He also was, “well aware of the seriousness of this act”. The context of the resignation was “… today's world, (was), subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith”.

So it is fair to paraphrase that this resignation was of tremendous significance at a time that some have said that the church was in “crisis” or at least at a “crossroad”.

It is also fair to say that the Catholic Church is one of the most important institutions in the world. One in 6 people are Catholics – that is approximately 1.2 billion people. The Church itself is tremendously wealthy and influential.  It is almost trite to say that the Church exhibits an all-embracing influence at the grass roots level, not only on personal behavior, but also in social and community activities such as charity and hospitals and even politically in various countries. The Church is potentially the most important agent for change in the world.

WHAT ARE THE “RAPID CHANGES” AND WHAT QUESTIONS HAVE “SHAKEN THE FAITH”?

The issues and challenges that that the papacy is facing in the future and those the outgoing Pope faced are many.

Pope Benedict XV1 was extremely unfortunate to be caught slap bang in the middle of resolving the festering problem of sexual abuse and its cover up in the Church. He worked hard at healing the havoc it wreaked. But like everything too late the efforts were considered too little and the issue is still lingering on.

“When forced to, he talks about the crimes but ignores the cover-ups, uses the past tense as if to suggest it's not still happening," maintained David Clohessy, the executive director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. "He has vast powers and he's done very little to make a difference." Others however have appreciated his efforts particularly in meeting with some of the victims.

Then there was the failure to resolve the ever-present banking scandals that the Vatican has been faced with over decades. The Vatican Bank is currently being investigated by the European bank for not having enough safeguards against money laundering. In addition his own butler was convicted in stealing confidential documents.

But the social issues challenging church doctrine have to be the most threatening of the “rapid changes” and the most "relevant"  that are” shaking….. the life of the faith”.

SOCIAL PROBLEMS

 There are the social “problems” that his successor will inherit that have been exacerbated by a “changing” world. These include contraception, abortion, homosexuality, feminism and even masturbation. Societal opinion is moving more and more in the opposite direction of the Church’s teaching in these areas.

Besides these general social issues there are those directly facing the church, such as communion and remarriage for the divorced. Ordination of women into the priesthood is also a hot button issue that is becoming more and more prominent. Celibacy of the priesthood is an age-old controversy that will never die. There is support within the church to allow men with AIDS to use condoms to prevent its spread.

There is an incredible shortage of nuns and priests that many maintain are related directly or indirectly to the social issues. In 1970 there were 420, 000 priests and while the number of Catholics grew to 1.2 billion in 2010, a growth of 83% in 40 years, the number of priests declined to 412,000. (Figures from CARA Georgetown University).

TURMOIL IN US CHURCH

While Europe has become more and more secular and has just quietly voted with it’s feet, the USA has been a hotbed of revolt. Catholicism is the largest religion in the United States where 25%, (80,000,000) of the population is Catholic. Most of the fuss and publicity with the church itself has been related to the sex abuse scandals where to date there have been 6,100 accused priests, 16,000 victims and 3 billion dollars paid out in sex abuse claims. In fact the whole subject will not go away. The Washington Post in an editorial as recently as February 14 complained that the “disgraced” Cardinal Mahoney, who was deeply involved in the cover up of abusers, is entitled to vote for the next Pope.

Contraception is not even an issue with Catholic women and 98% of them have used the latter at one or other stage of their lives.

With the high percentage of Catholics in the USA it is inevitable that several are in prominent political positions where their stance on social issues is of public interest such as gay marriage, gays in the military and in scouts, abortion, contraception and feminism generally, is in the public arena. It is accepted that the majority of the electorate, that includes those of catholic persuasion, to a lesser or greater extent are in not in favor of the current church doctrines on these issues.

The most public display of opposition to the status quo to the Church has come from the Leadership Conference of Women Religions. This group has 80% of the 57,000 nuns in the US as members. They have been outspoken on social issues and believe that women should be in all ministries. The Group has been roundly criticized by the Vatican as being more focused on social justice than the church doctrines. They are now to be supervised by three bishops. A particular target has been Sister Margaret Farley who has written a book entitled “Just Love”. It includes discussion on homosexuality, feminism and masturbation.

LIKELYHOOD OF DOCTRINAL CHANGE

The hype surrounding this resignation would lead one to believe that the Church could go either way on adapting to the “rapid changes”. Examination of the facts however rate the chances slim to none that there will be any major shift in doctrinal policy.  The reasons for this are many and include:

* “Smaller and Cohesive Church”.

 Pope Benedict has stated his preference for a “smaller and cohesive Church”. Implicit is his belief that the church will not change to become more inclusive of those who support this “rapid change”.  Even more significantly he appointed 67 of the 118 Cardinals. Between Pope Benedict and his very close associate Pope John Paul 11 they have appointed nearly every Cardinal in the conclave. Some have suggested that the Pontiff took this momentous decision to be a presence when the next Holy See was chosen. Although he is forbidden to be involved in the process there is no doubt that his very existence must have an influence on the outcome. In support of this theory is his statement the next day that his decision was,”…..  for the benefit of the church”.

* Candidates for the Next Holy See

Ostensibly the nationality of the next Pope will be a pointer as to whether the Church might respond to societal pressures of many of its flock. Intuitively one might believe that an African or Latin American Pontiff candidate or at least a non-Italian or non-European candidate might be a pointer to change. Examination of the leading candidates’ positions, regardless of their country of origin, however, will show that their philosophies are virtually ad idem.

The leading candidate is Cardinal Peter Turksen of Ghana. He has a prestigious position in having been appointed President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. He, is, if anyone is, the “progressive” candidate. However his credentials for this honor are pretty thin. He has half supported the idea that husbands with AIDS use condoms so as not to infect their spouses and that is that. The other African candidate with a chance is Cardinal Francis Arize of Nigeria who is the eldest of the candidates, barely qualifying for the Conclave. He is extremely conservative epitomizing the Church’s attitude on homosexuality. He might be a long shot as a compromise candidate as a result of his age.

There are two possible Latin American candidates. Cardinals De Aviz of Brazil and Leonardo Sadri of Argentine. Latin America has 42% of the Catholics in the world. Recently the Church in South America has been challenged in their proselytizing by other religions including Anglicans. Both of these candidates are within the conservative mould.

The Italians and Europeans Cardinals have as their strongest candidate the Milanese Cardinal Scala. He represents the traditional line. Europe has now only 25% of the world Catholic population. Many of these are nominally Catholics and it is acknowledged that the Church is out of sync with their needs and opinions.

The New York Times report that the Canadian Cardinal Quelet is the favorite of Pope Benedict XV1. He believes that Vatican 11 was interpreted too liberally. He heads the extremely powerful position of the Pope’s Office of Bishops. He thus appoints all the Bishops throughout the world of 1,2 billion Catholics. He is relatively young not yet being 70 years. In Jay H Ell’s opinion he has to be the favorite. He also fits the bill as not being Italian or European and this gives the impression that the Church is becoming more inclusive.

There are several other long shots such as Cardinal Dolan of the USA but that is what they are – long shots.  The one characteristic, all those that are serious contenders have, is that they are not going to change the status quo.

* National Origins of the Cardinals.

In the 8 years that Pope Benedict XV1, and in the 27 years of his predecessor’s reign for that matter, no real attempts has been made to meaningfully increase the Cardinal representation to approximate the number of Catholics in each respective country or continent. Italy with 53 million Catholics has 28 Cardinals, South America with 492 million have 19 Cardinals and Europe including Italy with a total of 300, 000 million have 64 Cardinals. So it is hard to imagine any candidate for the Papacy not needing a big chunk of the Conservative European Cardinal vote.

*The Vatican Bureaucracy.

The Vatican has a labyrinthine bureaucracy that is crucial to the working of the Church and the Papacy. Most of the major contenders have knowledge and have worked with it making an “outsider’s” election and ability to change the culture that much more difficult.

CONCLUSION

Everything thus points to the election of a Conservative candidate who wishes to maintain the status quo in the Catholic Church. Whatever the reason for Pope Benedict’s historic decision his very presence increases this possibility. The impact on the world will be felt whatever the decision because, regardless of the Church doctrine, the Church has a long tradition of serving the poor and pursuing justice. The big struggle for the hearts and minds of souls will be in Africa where Muslims are making inroads.

Rightly or wrongly the Vatican are concentrating on doctrine rather than meeting the needs of the modern world. They are ignoring the words of the nuns in the USA for example. Communities have literally had to abandon parishes, as they are not recruiting Priests. They have not recruited any more priests to account for a growth of nearly double the Catholics between 1970 and 2010. The average age of the priests in 1970 was 35 and in 2010 it was 63 years old. All this points to inability to recruit those who articulate church doctrine and those whom they need to serve the communities. The situation is potentially explosive. What happens if all those nuns will not listen to the three male supervising Bishops will nearly all the nuns in the USA be excommunicated?

Where it will all end no one knows but there are several possibilities including breakaway churches. In this day and age, to quote Pope Benedict XV1, of “rapid change”, coupled with the tools for continuous communication that has provided empowerment to the masses, anything can happen.