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Originally posted by valkyrie
Okay, this is kind of related -- so there are some who think the Catholic church should become more, I don't know, progressive and change with the times. There are others who disagree.
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I think some perspective is required when one wades into this question.
Some positions that many progressives would like to see addressed and changed are shared to some degree worldwide: the possibility of married priests for example (which is a clearly matter of changeable discipline and not of doctrine), which has an effect on having enough priests to go around. Use of condoms might be another, because of the health concerns in Africa and elsewhere.
But I have to laugh and roll my eyes when issues such as these are lumped together by the media with issues like homosexuality, which is a doctrinal/morality issue. This is an issue that is primarily a preoccupation of some (many) Catholics (and Protestants) in Western Europe and North America, but is not an issue at all -- except in that it is opposed -- in the Global South, where the church (Catholic and Protestant) is growing much faster than in the North.
One need only look at the Anglican Communion to see what can happen when progressive views on homosexuality are pushed unilaterally from the West. Not only is it dividing the Episcopal Church in the US, but Anglicans in the Global South are breaking ties with those in Western Europe and North America, whom they often see as perpetuating cultural, theological and ecclesial imperialism. They often see it as a "we're more enlightened than you are, so you should just follow us along." They also tend to see it as Western Christians caving in to culture instead of engaging and influencing the culture.
A pope is a pope for Catholics (and in some sense, Christians) all over the world. We in North America often, I think, need reminding that much, sometimes most, of the world doesn't necessarily see things the way many of us do.
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