no more Pope.

[KevinTheOmnivore]

Originally Posted by sspadowsky

Hell, they just officlally admitted in 1993 that Galileo was right. That's what I was drving at with the "relevance" remark.

No, I believe they apologized for showing the means of torture to Galileo, who was also good friends with the Pope at the time, so let's not throw this out there as a strong indictment of the Church.

Furthermore, there isn't really any proof that allowing women to be priests, allowing priests to marry, lightening up on contraception, etc., would actually broaden the Church. Like the article Ziggy posted argues, the decline of the Church here in America has happened despite the liberalization of Vatican II.

Originally Posted by Ziggy

Furthermore, there is a desperate priest shortage that may very well be leading would be Catholics into the welcoming arms of evangelicals in places like Latin America. In Africa, some nuns are secretly advocating condom use because of the AIDS crisis.

I don't really see how the three connect. An American shortage in priests is resulting in a swing towards Latin Evangelicalism? So what's the answer? Allow women in America to become priests, and then Latin America will become Roman Catholic (because they certainly aren't now)...?

And the actions of "some" nuns means very little to me. The AIDS crisis should, without question, be one of the top priorities for the Church in the 21st Century. It's difficult to go into third world countries and cultures, where large families may be the norm, and argue for abstinence. Tossing out free rubbers alone isn't the only possible solution.

So maybe it isn't so much the relevance of Catholicism that is being questioned, but perhaps the relevance of the Vatican. I'm curious though, whether our resident Catholics feel that the Vatican IS the Catholic Church, or vice-versa.

The Vatican is the bureacratic structure that directs the Church (with perhaps the Eastern Church getting a slight pass). The Pope is the spiritual leader and interpreter here on Earth, but no, the Vatican is not the Church (and your assumption that the Vatican is the problem is not necessarily accurate either).