What gives you hope for the future of Catholicism?

mmmcounts said:

What gives you hope that average Catholics of the future will be more like liberal Catholics of today?

Put another way, what are some things from the past that indicate a progression of this sort? And if you don't mind, could you outline a connection or two between some of the things you'd like to see in the future and some of the progression you've seen in the past? If you could tell me why some of the things from the past tend to indicate a particular kind of progression in either the near or more-distant future, that would be absolutely perfect.

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I think that human history and the history of the Catholic Church in particular naturally point towards a more liberal future. The Church was once repressive and violent in the middle ages, but later it abandoned concepts such as the inquisition and the holy wars, and that's already a step in the progressive/liberal direction. Then there is the whole process of ecumenism...

I do know that history works like a slanted staircase, where after every step up there is a step down, but the latter is smaller and on the average the staircase is going upward. The only possibility for the downward direction to "win" is if humankind self-destructs and the whole staircase ceases to exist (which would be a clear victory for evil), otherwise progression towards good and justice is only natural, it's where evolution is taking us.

I don't think that every typical idea of liberal catholicism is that good tho... I don't think in fact it will ever be possible for the Church to change its mind about abortion! It won't also change its mind about divorce in general, but I expect it to become somewhat more tolerant (it already is).

Some things that I do think will slowly go towards a more liberal view are related to homosexuality, birth control, artificial insemination and euthanasia (that doesn't mean the Church will irresponsively "give up" and let everyone do what their want, but it will have a more liberal view overall).

Frankly I don't think liturgy and clerical rules (e.g. married priests, women priests) really have much to do with liberalism. In fact, they don't even matter much to me.

So I was reading this fascinating commentary on the gospel story in which Jesus asks for a Roman coin and ends up saying "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and render unto God the things that are God's." Usually the focus is on the separation of spiritual with the political, but in this commentary the focus is that Jesus is asking Herodians and Pharisees to provide a coin first of all to take a look at it. This request for them to provide a coin is often overlooked. But put into historical context, most average folks living in Jesus' time would not have been able to provide a coin because of their extreme poverty. For the Pharisees and Herodians to actually be able to supply a coin was thus meant to show the huge economic inequality and to mark the Herodians as collaborators with the oppressive Roman imperial occupation. Intersting?

KevinKuck said:

So I was reading this fascinating commentary on the gospel story in which Jesus asks for a Roman coin and ends up saying "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and render unto God the things that are God's." Usually the focus is on the separation of spiritual with the political, but in this commentary the focus is that Jesus is asking Herodians and Pharisees to provide a coin first of all to take a look at it. This request for them to provide a coin is often overlooked. But put into historical context, most average folks living in Jesus' time would not have been able to provide a coin because of their extreme poverty. For the Pharisees and Herodians to actually be able to supply a coin was thus meant to show the huge economic inequality and to mark the Herodians as collaborators with the oppressive Roman imperial occupation. Intersting?

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Consider creating a new thread for this. It is worth a discussion.

Rao said:

Some things that I do think will slowly go towards a more liberal view are related to homosexuality, birth control, artificial insemination and euthanasia (that doesn't mean the Church will irresponsively "give up" and let everyone do what their want, but it will have a more liberal view overall).

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The position of the Catholic Church on homosexuality and the other issues listed is grounded in the dogma of the Church. The dogma of the Catholic Church is guarded by the Holy Spirit. Teachings have been added to the dogma but never in the 2,000 year history of the Catholic Church has the dogma been changed. No one in the Church, including popes, have the authority to change the dogma. When a Pope speaks from the Chair of Peter he speaks with infallable authority. That infallable authority does not come from the man, it comes from the Holy Spirit. To change the dogma you have to change the mind of God. After all the time of history from Adam to today do you really thing God is going to change His mind just for the sinful desires of some men? Is it not better to follow God and the holy Church He created to lead us to Him than to try to change His mind. When we pray the Our Father prayer we should reflect hard upon the line "thy will be done". It mean "let the will of God be done", not the sinful will of men.

Ran Pleasanst