Politics The Abdication of Benedict: Whither Catholicism?

The announcement by Pope Benedict XIV that he is resigning the papacy, effective February 28, is a huge change for the Catholic Church (which has one and a quarter billion adherents). This is one of the rare voluntary abdications by a sitting pope (I can only think of two or three others, and none in the last several centuries), and, as this excellent piece of coverage by NPR astutely points out, it blows open a series of potential conversations that the Vatican might engage in, resulting in various different routes the Conclave of Cardinal Electors might take in appointing the next pope, who very likely will reign for much longer than Benedict (who was understood from the beginning as an "interim" or "caretaker" pope).

I post this thread to the political forum not only because the Vatican is a country, and the pope an important head of state, but also because the shifts in the Catholic church represent an interesting sociological tension in the world populace.

Catholicism, in terms both of numbers of adherents and "strength" of adherence amongst its flock, is taking it in the nuts in the Western World. Church numbers are down in America (where the majority of Catholic power is coming to rest in immigrant populations), and sharply down in Europe, the traditional bastion of Catholic power. Their growth areas are almost all in the Third World, except for their growth in Japan, China, and Korea. All these Third World areas are socially conservative (sometimes radically so), and deeply amenable to maintaining and upholding most of the Church's traditional dogmas and tenets in terms both of leadership and of social philosophies, with the possible exception of priestly celibacy.

But if the Church were interested in reinvigorating its European/North American power base, it's pretty clear that what would make the difference is a series of progressive policy shifts: not just dropping priestly celibacy requirements, but also ordaining women, permitting birth control, and committing itself very publicly and strongly to increased transparency and to making serious amends for the recent series of abuse scandals.

So the questions are: where will the Church go? What direction will the Cardinals take the Vatican, and how will their decisions play out among Catholics worldwide?

If the Church swings more progressive, they will undoubtedly pick up numbers in Europe and North America, but lose some of their momentum in the Third World, and possibly in Asia. If that happens, where will those people end up? Evangelical Protestantism and the Mormon Church are both making inroads in South America. Evangelical Protestantism and Islam are both making inroads in Africa. Will any of those find benefit there, and what could that mean for the stage of world religions and cultures?

If the Church swings conservatively, they may be condemning themselves to a slow death of irrelevancy in Europe and America. Since the majority of the Church's funding comes from these areas, how might that affect the functioning of the Church in the future? And what might it come to mean for Catholicism to change from a caucasian-dominated religion spread to people of color to a religion of people of color sometimes taken on by caucasians?

Europe, once dominated by the discourse of Christianity, is rapidly becoming a very secular, increasingly atheist area. If the Church swings progressive, might that change things? And what might a more progressive Church mean for the general discourse of religions in the world? If the Church swings more conservative, what will a truly secular, perhaps even atheist-dominated Europe be like? There is already a considerable problem in Europe with xenophobia and intolerance garbed in the clothes of secular universalism or secular humanism: what will the Church's choices do to these trends?

Discuss.

 

I have no basis with which to make an informed opinion on this, but the Catholic Church is an edifice. And my impression is that edifices, in general, don't dance about. They tend to be pretty steadfast and stay right smack dab where they're standing.

 

Yeah, it's pretty funny when the Grand Muppet of God goes all Kanye West:



...

From the perspective as a guy who doesn't believe in mythical outer space superheroes, I've observed the Pope / HRCC basically water themselves down and yet continue the pageantry as if their particular Howdy Doody reruns somehow still impress today's first world kids. It's an interesting dilemma: If they try to stay up to date with contemporary social issues, they look like they're a wishy-washy salvation retailer; if they stay true to tradition, they look like obsolete dinosaurs that need to wake up and smell the Yucatan impact. Religion will continue to spread like wildfire in parts of the world where god hasn't yet been replaced with money and church hasn't yet been replaced with Facebook.

/Captain Obvious

 

The Catholic Church does need to modernize a little bit and use their organizational powers for good. The morals can be the same, but they need to adapt how they come across. And they need to build a sense of community in neighborhoods again.

I think they also need to push for a 4 day work week too. With TV and the Internet, people are too busy now to take two hours out of their weekend to sit in church. Some people might like that, but others might want a more spirited debate, or a safe forum to talk about the problems they face in their lives and get advice from the congregation, others would like a more hands on approach to helping the sick, feeding the poor, rebuilding homes. Then there is the whole marriage issue, where they should be focused on improving and maintaining current marriages through education, conflict resolution, self improvement, and therapy.

They also have to get out of politics. That is the tough one.

 

Evangelical Protestantism is making very strong inroads into Asia. I get the feeling that many choose this brand of Christianity because it is already more socially conservative than the Catholics while dispensing with the trappings (i.e. conservative and modern, all the Christ without the Catholic guilt and hangups).

I know that Evangelical Protestantism is also quite popular with Asian communities in North America as well.

 

Without the guilt?? Christianity in all its forms is predicated on controlling through guilt for having desires, and the evangelical protestants I grew up with were very big on hellfire and damnation punishment for our guilt of being human. At least the Catholic church let you shed your accumulated guilt like a snake's skin through confession/absolution

 

While I'd be all for a gay black Pope, something tells me that you can only go so far before the whole thing crumbles in on itself.

 

Especially if she was a Muslim, I guess. It would give a lot of people hope.

Which is why it won't happen.

May have a black man, though. Not sure whether that would be a first (some uncertainty about Victor I).