The Future of the Church

The Catholic Church is no longer simply a European church. It's not even a Northern Hemisphere church. Nor is it primarily a white church. It is now a universal church found in every country, every race, and nearly every global culture.

All of which means that when the 115 cardinals begin their conclave to pick the next pope, they'll debate far more than liturgical fine points or birth control or how the church will deal with women's roles. They'll set the stage for Catholicism's embrace of the 21st century-complete with globalization, terrorism, poverty, American dominance, and the clash of Christianity and Islam.

It is these issues that must drive the Catholic Church in the next decades, says Father James Fredericks, a Jesuit theologian at Loyola Marymount College in Los Angeles. "The challenge is this," says Fredericks. "How is the Catholic Church-as the world's first transnational community-going to relate to Islam, Judaism, and all the other faiths, as a global community? This pope took important steps, but it was only the beginning of a long and difficult process, and doing so goes to the heart of the mission of the Catholic Church."

How will the cardinals respond? Many people predict they'll elect a pope who is emblematic of these struggles-a cardinal from Latin America or Africa.

"This would have a tremendous impact," says Father Thomas Reese, author of Inside the Vatican. "It would show that this is a universal church." Third World cardinals are worried about their desperately poor and hungry flocks, about the uber-dominance of the United States in their economies and cultures, about dealing with Muslims, and about persecution of Christians.

On the other hand, says Reese, American cardinals are worried about the loss of morale among their members because of the priest sex abuse crisis. It's critical the Vatican keep Americans content because U.S. Catholics contribute about 25% of the Vatican's annual budget. Meanwhile, both Americans and Europeans want someone willing to bend on issues such as birth control and priestly celibacy; they also want a man who continues the pope's outreach to Protestants and Jews, and who can continue efforts to lure wealthy, secularized Catholics back to the pews. Those concerns might argue for an Italian pope, who could soothe Americans and energize Europeans.

Jo Renee Formicola of Seton Hall University adds more issues to the list. Pope John Paul II desperately wanted to establish relations with China, she says, but was rebuffed by the Chinese government. He wanted the same with Cuba and Russia. Cuba may resolve itself after the death of Castro, but what of Russia, which-along with large portions of eastern Europe-is controlled by the Orthodox church? Then there is the "impending disaster" between Islam and Christianity, says Formicola. And the needs of Africa with its unfolding AIDS crisis and its desperate lack of clergy. Or Latin America, where Catholics feel under siege by Pentecostal Christians. She adds that the situation is unsettled in the United States, too, where there are lots of "cafeteria Catholics" who refuse to buy the church's teachings on sexual morality. Or in Holland, where euthanasia is legal; and in France, which is rife with anti-clericalism.

"There are major challenges left," Formicola says. "A new pope will look at these things with new eyes. He can revisit all these problems and bring a new approach to how to deal with these questions in the 21st century."

Continued on page 2: »