Catholic Church Analysis
The Catholic Church confronts the twenty-first century just as it began the twentieth century - as a Church divided.
At that time, the fractious debates surrounding the historicity and meaning of the Christian scriptures and the Vatican's controversial response to the "threat" of modernism left the Church ill prepared to respond to the seismic cultural, economic and political changes that would accompany the post-war reconstruction efforts.
The Council also embraced freedom of religion. Established religion was abandoned and the secular state blessed as normative. The last great declaration of the Council was that the Catholic Church was to live in, love and provide service for the modern world. Entrenched obscurantism seemed to be dispelled. http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2011/12/01/3381137.htm In order to eradicate sexual abuse …show more content…
The encyclical Humanae Vitae lacked the technical requirements of infallibility. And yet so much papal energy and prestige have been invested in this teaching that for many people it is quite unthinkable that the pope could be wrong, for such an admission would seriously undermine all papal prestige, and that can never be allowed to happen. This makes it extremely difficult for a pope, or those whose own position is dependent on papal prestige, to admit that a pope has made a mistake on any serious matter.
In a particular way, whether it be a solemn dogma or an ordinary teaching or merely an ancient law or practice, it would be extraordinarily difficult for a pope of today to state that most of his predecessors had been wrong. This is a major force in preventing a pope from making admissions that there have been serious failures in the handling of abuse or from even allowing discussion of an issue such as mandatory celibacy for priests. If we are looking at the causes of the poor response to abuse, this one must be given a very high place.
10. Loyalty to a Silent
At that time, the fractious debates surrounding the historicity and meaning of the Christian scriptures and the Vatican's controversial response to the "threat" of modernism left the Church ill prepared to respond to the seismic cultural, economic and political changes that would accompany the post-war reconstruction efforts.
The Council also embraced freedom of religion. Established religion was abandoned and the secular state blessed as normative. The last great declaration of the Council was that the Catholic Church was to live in, love and provide service for the modern world. Entrenched obscurantism seemed to be dispelled. http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2011/12/01/3381137.htm In order to eradicate sexual abuse …show more content…
The encyclical Humanae Vitae lacked the technical requirements of infallibility. And yet so much papal energy and prestige have been invested in this teaching that for many people it is quite unthinkable that the pope could be wrong, for such an admission would seriously undermine all papal prestige, and that can never be allowed to happen. This makes it extremely difficult for a pope, or those whose own position is dependent on papal prestige, to admit that a pope has made a mistake on any serious matter.
In a particular way, whether it be a solemn dogma or an ordinary teaching or merely an ancient law or practice, it would be extraordinarily difficult for a pope of today to state that most of his predecessors had been wrong. This is a major force in preventing a pope from making admissions that there have been serious failures in the handling of abuse or from even allowing discussion of an issue such as mandatory celibacy for priests. If we are looking at the causes of the poor response to abuse, this one must be given a very high place.
10. Loyalty to a Silent