[bobthecockroach]

Two realizations/admissions before I start.

1. I know y'all are probably sick of us Protestants coming and asking too many questions.

2. I know not to believe everything I read.

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"I think the next big issues will be social issues. The next pope will have to decide whether to risk alienating many politically moderate Catholics by continuing the current policies towards contraception, artificial insemination, abortion, gay marriage and women in leadership roles." -
Tim Stafford; Denham Springs; Louisiana

That was on cnn.com's special called, "The Face Of The Church," in their section of comments from Catholics around the globe. What I am wondering is whether the Catholic church is actually heading in the direction of abortion, gay marriage and woman leadership. Do y'all actually see this is a possibility in the future of the church? If so, what does that mean to you? If not, why not, and where did this guy get the idea that the Church was headed in that direction?

It was my understanding that abortion, in particular, was one of the issues that the Roman Catholic Church felt most strongly about. I find it hard to imagine that their current understanding of abortion is likely ever to change to a more liberal understanding, but I do not have an insider's point of view.

Since I've been in my religion class this semester, I have tried to clear away the smoke of media and American bias about different religions and figure out what different religions actually believe. Now, granted Catholicism is not as significantly different from Protestantism as some of the religions I've studied in class, but Catholicism IS a lot more prominent in my area (than even Protestantism).

Until attending Loyola (a Jesuit school), I was not aware of Catholics as liberal as Loyola is, but now I am. I'm just looking for a deeper understanding of the Catholic Church by understanding how Catholics see it from the inside, so to speak.

[goldenchild]

Well let me tell you straight up. There are many, many Catholics who have strong liberal leanings. There are many people who would love to see the Church loosen her stance on such teachings as abortion, birth control, euthanasia, gay marriage, female ordination, etc.

Before this election, many conservative Catholics(myself included) were concerned the new pope would be a man who was not such a hard-liner, that maybe would consider loosening the stance on such things.

But this was really all just speculation. These issues are part of Catholic teaching and they don't change, as much as some would like them to.

The election of Pope Benedict XXIII(a.k.a. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger) should put all the speculation aside. This man, before he became pope, was the man who enforced the doctrines of the Church and made sure that things didn't get out of hand. If the Church was leaning towards a more liberal stance, then he was definitely not the man they would've chosen.

[kepha]

April 19, 2005

POPE BENEDICT XVI

Catholic League president William Donohue commented today on the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as the new pope:

“Orthodox Catholics have cause for great celebration—the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as our new Holy Father sends an unmistakable message: the College of Cardinals wants a man who will continue the theological legacy of Pope John Paul II. There can be no greater tribute to John Paul the Great than this.

“In 1986, Cardinal Ratzinger wrote a letter to an insubordinate priest, Charles Curran, saying, ‘The authorities of the Church cannot allow the present situation to continue in which…one who is to teach in the name of the Church in fact denies her teaching.’ In 1998, as John Paul II’s enforcer of orthodoxy, he said that the Church’s prohibition against ‘priestly ordination of women’ had ‘been set forth infallibly.’ It is for reasons like these that the New York Times recently called him, ‘the Vatican’s hard-line defender of the faith.’

“Yesterday, in his homily before the men who would elect him pope, Ratzinger said, ‘We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one’s own ego and one’s own desires.’ This is straight out of John Paul II’s encyclical, Veritatis Splendor, one of the most powerful statements on morality ever written. In short, the new pope, like his predecessor, understands the grave danger that awaits a society wherein each individual makes up his own morality. It may not sell in the U.S., but it is nonetheless true that a society that refuses to acknowledge that morality is a social attribute—not an individual one—is bound to culturally implode.
“The Catholic League is delighted. Those who are not need to do some real soul searching.” http://www.catholicleague.org/news.htm

The Catholic League is the nation's largest Catholic civil rights organization. It defends individual Catholics and the institutional Church from defamation and discrimination.