I wish to thank all those who have contributed their opinions to the discussion what ways the Church
can/should change in the next pontificate and ways it cannot/should notchange. Some of the responses have come in the form of full blog entries, rather than comments. I’d like now to offer rebuttals and clarifications.
There’s been much talk lately of what the Church should do and/or change – according to American Catholics. It’s driving me nuts. First off, I wish Americans would get over their own self-importance. There are lots on non-American Catholics throughout the world. Secondly, the Church is not run by popular opinion. The Church seeks to conform the world to Christian principles when and where it can and to form sub- and counter-cultures if that fails. We are to be in the world but not of it. Divine Truth does not change with time. True, it sometimes must be reworded or re-examined in light of temporal realities, but that only means that implementations change, not their bases. Last, but not least, the pope does not have sole power to change a lot of the things people want changed. That which has been stated infallibly, either ordinarily (i.e. implicitly) or extraordinarily (i.e. explicitly), cannot ever be changed.
That said, I do think we have a fascinating topic for discussion here (not pontification – no pun intended). The following are commonly reported issues “the majority” of American Catholics (at least in name – they weren’t asked about their devotion) would like and my reactions to them. Rather than just say, “My way or the highway!”, I’d like hear your opinions. Please specify the source of your viewpoint – Catholic, Protestant, Jew, Jedi, Sith, atheist, etc. – and explain how your group would be affected by choices made by the Church after the election. I hope this isn’t too tall an order. 😉
[NOTA BENE: These are my opinions. I believe some of them are based on solid Church teachings, some of them dogmatic. Some are very strong opinions about issues that push my buttons. Please don’t let that discourage you from responding and offering opinions of your own. I do want a truly open and honest discussion/debate of these issues. I do not
think that is possible to any reasonable degree without total honest. Thus, I haven’t pulled any of my punches. I hope you won’t either (within the limits of civility). – Funky]
Paul McLachlan asks an interesting question: What’s in a name? Specifically, what’s in a pope’s name? It’ll be interesting to see what name the next pope chooses for himself. I’d like him to choose James. I don’t think there’s been a Pope James before.
“What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him? If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. But some one will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe — and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you shallow man, that faith apart from works is barren? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by works, and the scripture was fulfilled which says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness’; and he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the harlot justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead. ” – James 2:14-26 RSV
Apropos in light of the pope’s passing:
“The faith of Christ teaches more than courage in the face of death. Our attitude to death is transformed. As we come to a more intimate experience of the reality of God, we may enter into the overcoming power and strength of the great words of Christ, ‘I am the Resurrection and the Life.’ Death is swallowed up in victory. For those we love it is no longer a dark place but an entrance into fuller light of God. Though we naturally grieve at the withdrawal of loved friends from our physical sight, we may still rejoice in their new freedom. The dead are not lost to us; they are still our friends in the service of the Eternal.”
– London Yearly Meeting; Report and Draft Revision of Christian Discipline, Parts I and II, Revision Committee, 1959 (quote found in Faith and Practice, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, 1972)
The Lord sits upon His throne and says, “Behold, I make all things new.”1. Indeed, he does.
The Alpha…
“then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”2
…and the Omega
“Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.'”3