We are meanwhile used since the advent of the pontificate of Pope Francis that conservative and circles of the Roman-Catholic Church are falling into opposition to the man on top of the church’s hierarchy.
First very decent the choir of discontent and the wish to embalm tradition and keep the church from moving through the times even closer to the divine mysteries; now you hear screams and public discontent which in the times of John-Paul II would have had severe consequences if you would have been a priest or an employee of the church.
Times have changed and even the slightest acknowledgement of human development from the Vatican seems for some to constitute heresy on Peter’s throne. Footnotes in papal writings trigger storms of indignation in certain circles of the church.
And now the Synod Way of the German Bishops Conference and the implementation of a local Synod in the Diocese of Trier give way to another onslaught of staunch self-described Catholics who know the truth, who know the ways of God and who know exactly how salvation is achieved for human mankind. Prescribed since the old ages and seemingly never able to develop – let alone to change.
It seems that those fighting against any new insight forget how slavery was once normal for the church, how religious freedom or even democracy originated from the devil – let alone that the earth was the center of the universe….
Theology, once the crown jewel of academia is for those people sentenced to withstand research and new knowledge contradicting or expanding the bases for religious notions.
Indeed exciting times – and maybe the word ‘diversity’ would help us to understand that there is nothing wrong in feeling at home in different religious settings within the broader church. Maybe the word ‘tolerance’ would prescribe a way to understand that my way of believing is in many instances unique and that there is a framework in which we are all allowed to prosper and indulge in coming closer to the divine and the mystery of God.
And maybe listening to each other instead of judging each other, allowing for questions of variance and doubt, not using sacraments as weapons or punishment and seeing the good, the divine in every brother and sister would help us to move forward – allowing for those who want to remain a bit behind and those who want to stray forward to still feel being part of the same church, the same group of faithful.
Filed under: Catholic Church, Reflection, Uncategorized, academia, Catholic, democracy, German Bishops Conference, Pope Francis, religious freedom, Roman-Catholic Church, slavery, St. Peter, synod
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