On John Paul the II, the movies, and the cold war.

[Fovea]

In 1968, a movie came out about a Russian Catholic priest who became Pope, and what that meant to the cold war.

Years later, along comes John Paul II, and the movie came to life.
In it, the Soviet Union is not falling, no one in '68 could have imagined that. But John Paul stood as an inpiration to the Poles while the Solidarity movement stood up for Polish workers and citizens.

He survived an assassination attempt and forgave his assailant. He travelled more than any other Pope, evar. There are many ways in which he was unprecidented in his engagement with the real world.

Having said that, it must also be said that Harvey Cox, he was not. He lagged behind his flock in issues of sexuality and reproduction. He lagged even behind his predicessor John Paul I, who lasted little more than a month.

He was not yet a worldly enough Pope to deal with the core issues behind the sexual scandals in his own church. Doing thus will require a severe self appraisal of how the Catholic Church has failed to address its own failed dogma. Once it can admit fallibility, it can embrace correction.

This next Pope is life or die for the Church. I know as a Wiccan, I should probably keep my freakin mouth shut, but I have Catholic friends who struggle hard with their faith and harder with their church. If the church keeps to the hard line, and does not address modern life with the spirit shown by JP1, it will lose these Catholics, and they deserve better than that betrayal.

This church is our bastard child. Half gospel, half morris dance, the church will make its most important choice in the next few days.

I pray to all the saints, to the mighty ones of the gallilean faith. Please, guide your faith home to harbor in its darkest hour, this stormy night.
Thus prays a heathen priest to the blessed of another god.

[Celeborn Skywalker]

1. I think changes will be made.

At least on some issues. For instance, I think they'll back off of their current positions on birth control, women priests, and possibly celibacy. I don't see the church changing its stance on abortion, gay rights, or euthanasia, unfortunately, but I do see progress being made. I also agree that the child sexual abuse scandal must be addressed much more clearly and forcefully.

[Fovea]

2. I agree on

B.C. and women priests.

Celebacy may be a tougher fight. Gay rights, ironically will be a hard fight.

I think that there is a big ass magilla happening behind closed curtains. The Church is so rocked by its failure to address modernity, that this is the change or die moment.

[justsomegirl]

3. For what it's worth...

On Friday, I talked to a layman friend of mine who's very active in the Catholic Church on the West Coast. He doesn't think the Church will ever change their policy on women priests, (which he personally disagrees with) and he suspects that the next pope will continue the more conservative Church viewpoints.

Also, he said there's no way we'll see an American (US) pope, but thinks it's more likely that they'll try to pick someone with some connection to the Middle East region in an effort to bring healing to the area. We'll see...