Can the Church Return to the Faithful?

[cbayer]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/07/opinion/jennifer-finney-boylan-can-the-church-return-to-the-faithful.html?_r=0

FEB. 6, 2015

Jennifer Finney Boylan

I ONCE had a friend with a boomerang. One day we took it to the Jersey Shore and I watched as he whupped it around. It was beautiful: the young man and the boomerang, the bright sun and the water. Then, late in the day, he tossed it out over the ocean, and the boomerang didn’t come back. For a while we stood together, looking out, wondering whether we might just have lost sight of it. We glanced around nervously, on the off chance that it might yet clock us on the head, returning from a direction we had not anticipated.

I thought of that long-lost boomerang recently, when the Vatican announced that Pope Francis would be visiting New York in September. It will most likely be a one-day visit, including a speech at the United Nations and probably a Mass at Madison Square Garden and a visit to St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

This pope has gotten rave reviews for his supposedly progressive views, although it may be only that he seems progressive when compared to Pope Benedict XVI, the pope whose philosophy, at times, sounded like the pastoral version of “Get off my lawn.” It is hard to imagine a pope being chosen as the Person of the Year by both Time magazine and The Advocate (a leading L.G.B.T. magazine), but Francis was, in 2013. He’s said that evolution and “the notion of creation” were not “inconsistent”; urged the church to help the poor; and asked, “Who am I to judge?” on the issue of gay priests. The best measure of the pope’s liberalness might be that Rick Santorum says he finds him “very difficult to listen to.”

Yet it’s worth remembering that Francis has not actually changed any church doctrine on these issues. And he hasn’t done a thing to walk back Benedict’s egregious comments on transgender people, which suggested that in living our lives openly, we somehow make human dignity “disappear.” Then, this week, Francis praised Slovakian pilgrims for defending the family, in a quote that appeared to give support to a referendum in their country scheduled for today that could ban marriage and adoption for same-sex and transgender couples.

more at link

[edhopper]

1. My feeling is

he's just not that into you.
I don't see the RCC coming back. Just shrinking as Catholics find churches better suited to their views.

[cbayer]

2. IMO, it's not going anywhere.

I have recently lived in two countries where the catholic church remains the dominant religious force.

The church will eventually change, though it will be very slow to do so, and in the mean time people will leave, at least for a time.

But the church is so much more than it's doctrine for the individuals who are tied to it.

I think you are expressing your wish more than the reality.

[edhopper]

3. I am talking generationally

I don't think it is going away, I just think it will loose a good share of it's congregation, as is happening in Europe and here.
I am merely expressing a speculation.
Things will change. It could be that the Vatican stays entrenched while churches in other areas become more liberal. But there are so many choices now for people to worship, I wonder if they will simply find a church that better suits them.
I don't think the RCC can keep it's followers keeping it's current doctrines. But they show no signs of changing. And I also think the pedophile scandal seriously damaged any of their moral authority.

[cbayer]

4. As the author notes, she is hopeful for a time when she can return.

and she is by no means alone. She also describe the catholic agencies in New York who are doing exactly the right thing and wishes the pope would visit them.

Europe has certainly had a significant shift, but I don't think the data supports that they are losing a "good share" of their congregation in the US, and the data supports strong growth in other areas of the world.

The RCC, like the Mormons, will do whatever they have to do to stay alive. Individual congregations change, but stay catholic. Organizations and individuals fight for change, but stay catholic.

Unlike others, I do see signs of impending change. Perhaps that is my wishful thinking.

While I agree that the pedophile scandal did damage, it does seem to me that they have taken a clear and definitive stand on this. That is a huge change from their previous behavior. I do think Francis has instituted a zero tolerance policy.