The Southern Cross, the weekly South African Catholic newspaper, has a letter and an article hoping for something that will not happen.
Can the Church Move to the Centre?, by someone who sounds like they belong on a bus with nuns from the USA, says:
When the cardinals meet in conclave in March, will they look around and ask “Who amongst us is like Benedict? Who can ‘hold the line’, enforce orthodoxy and punish any deviance?” Or will they recognise that these two papacies have put the Church badly off balance with its centre of gravity now far to the right? …”
Deus avertat! Hopefully they will recognise that we need another Pope Benedict. We need orthodoxy.
A fellow Capetonian asks for something even worse: Plea to modernise the Church
I believe that Catholics should actively consider discarding all the vestments presently worn by the pope and bishops and others … Why not urgently, for the love of Christ, the Church and its people, dress the pope, bishops, nuns and others in well-cut business-like suits, even sometimes in informal or sports clothes? … Why not abandon strange hand signals and overly timid voices, so that the message of Jesus Christ can be taken seriously?
Seriously? Abandon the Sign of the Cross? Abandon nearly 2000 years of deep, rich symbolism that, even without words, has the ability to bring us closer to God? Yes, there are other denominations to join if you don’t want rich, biblical symbolism.
And no, the next pope will not allow the ordination of women.
1 comments
I read the second letter you refer to a few days ago and came up with a plan to marry a Greek and become Greek Orthodox or something like that if they put priests in suits for Mass.
I don’t think the writer of the letter has ever seen a priest outside of church. I seem to remember that a priest we know wears a swimming costume and not vestments when he swims, or used to swim, he’s getting a little old, I’m pretty sure he still walks around in shorts though.