OOn Thursday, the cardinals met in Rome to choose the new leader for 1.4 billion Catholics. Now, following the observation of the white smoke from the Sistine Chapel chimney, the announcement of a new pope is expected Shorty.
Meanwhile, the Catholic church stands once again at a crossroads. The animated question confronted with the conclave was whether the cardinals wanted the Church to continue in the direction of a broader and more spacious understanding of faith as it is articulated by François, or will it return to the conservative and more traditionalist ways of its predecessors, John Paul II and Benoît XVI.
The church was held on several occasions at the crossroads in the modern era.
From 1545 to 1560, the Council of Trent met to determine the response of the Church to the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther, an Augustinian brother before his excommunication in 1520, had underlined the corruptions of medieval Catholicism and underlined the doctrine of justification by faith (not works) and what he called the priesthood of believers.
The question before the prelates of the Council of Trent was to recognize the excesses and to reform the Church in the direction of Protestantism more stripped than Luther and other reformers recommended. Trent, however, moved to the opposite direction, becoming “more Catholic” in its affirmation of the importance of the sacraments and good works. This hyper-Catholicism can be drawn most graphically in the Baroque and Rococo architecture that followed, that John Updike describe As “an incredible visual pastry of the interiors of the baroque church, from mocking pillars of gesso to paint melting upwards in close-l'oeil ceilings bubbling with cherubs, everything that is golden and tilted and twisted to titiler the eye, the immense interior wedding.”
Another crossroads for modern Catholicism occurred after the death of Pope Pius XII in October 1958. The cardinals opted for what they thought was a “guardian” pope, Angelo Giuseppe Roncal, 76, who took the name of John XXIII. He turned out to be anything but a goalkeeper. Declaring that it was “time to open the church windows and let the fresh air pass from the mind”, he summoned the second Vatican Council, which reformed the theology of the Church and the liturgy (including mass in vernacular) and, say its supporters, brought the Church into the modern world.
The successor of John XXIII, Pope Paul VI faced another crossroads shortly after the conclusion of Vatican II. John XXIII had shape A study group, the Pontifical Commission for Birth Control, to review the teaching of the Church on the issue. The commission, which Paul VI has extended, included laymen, married couples, theologians and bishops. The overwhelming recommendation was that the Church revises its teaching to allow artificial birth control means.
Paul VI, however, rejected this recommendation and published the Papal encyclical Humanae Vitae On July 25, 1968. The only acceptable means of birth control, the church decreed, was the rhythm method, which criticisms quickly nicknamed the “Vatican roulette”.
Humanae Vitae A convinced of many Catholics, especially in the United States, that the Pope was desperately disconnected. The feminism of the second wave, the desire for ascending mobility, career opportunities and the desire for small families have prompted many Catholic households to ignore the papal directive on birth control. Like many studies have shown, Catholic attendance denied after 1968; Many Catholics have said for the first time that it was good to disobey the Pope and always consider good Catholics.
Now, after the death of Pope Francis, the church stands once again at a crossroads. The conservatives, these Mark Massa, a historian and a Jesuit, call the “Catholic fundamentalists”, put pressure for a Pope who will reverse the course. They criticize Francis for having made openings to the LGBTQ community and for having allowed priests to bless the unions of the same sex. They claim that he “feminized” the Church by calling what others describe as “toxic masculinity”. They do not like the fact that he has restricted the use of traditional Latin mass and entertained the possibility of ordering married men to the priesthood.
The other faction of the church stresses that Francis has graciously sought to welcome marginal – gay, lesbian, divorced people – in the church and has shown concern for immigrants and for the poor, positions which have a appeal demonstrable to a younger generation of Catholics. They also appreciate his attention on the ravages of climate change.
The term liberal In the context of the Roman Catholic Church, can be an oxymoron, but this second camp seeks to perpetuate the work and heritage of Francis. The conclave stands at a crossroads, and the person chosen by the cardinals will probably determine the management of the church for the years to come.
As an episcopal priest, not Catholic, I have only an interest -rooted interest in the conclave, and I relocate to make predictions. But I remember the words of “The Devil went down to Georgia”, by Charlie Daniels Band, a game of Fiddler between Satan and a young man named Johnny. The devil bets a golden violin against Johnny's soul and leaves with the bow through the strings, making “a bad whistle”. The interpretation can be technically perfect, but it lacks souls.
When Johnny takes his turn, the violin vibrates with verve and passion – and he prevails. Whoever prevails in the deliberations of cardinals will inherit a church with a lot of gilding but still needs the verve and the passion that Francis brought to the task.
