Word: church
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...Boccaccio Code, especially in the wake of the abuse crisis. We've learned to conform to the Catholic faith instead of the Catholic hierarchy. And if the Pope's visit and its aftermath indicate anything, it's that we aren't likely to change that stance until the church, with deeper structural and doctrinal reform, changes its own. As the Pope returns to Rome, a common question here will be, Did he make American Catholics feel any better about their church? But just as common an answer may be, Does it really matter anymore...
Nonsense, say our bishops and priests: the church is your religion and issues like abortion are "non-negotiable." But U.S. Catholics know better - and that's a sign, I would argue, that they are good Catholics. I didn't convert to Catholicism as a college student because of the church, although I'm the first to acknowledge that my church, like most churches, is capable of sublime holiness, a la Mother Teresa. I converted to a religion that I felt more meaningfully engaged my spirituality because it more meaningfully engaged my humanity - and, as strange as this sounds...
...pedophile scandals and the retro dogma, I usually reach for Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron and its story about a Catholic trying to convert a non-Catholic friend. The friend insists on visiting Rome so he can observe the Holy See himself. This being the 14th century, when church leaders were about as saintly as Enron executives, the Catholic fears that his pal will return home appalled. And so he does - but he declares he's ready to become a Catholic anyway. The reason: he figures any religion that can have that bad a church and still have so many followers...
...clerical sexual abuse was, I'm as gratified as any Catholic that Pope Benedict XVI confronted the issue as strongly as he did during his U.S. visit. And yet, as the celestial glow and the cable news giddiness wear off, most U.S. Catholics will still be angry at the church over the scandal; most still won't adhere to church teaching on issues like birth control, homosexuality, divorce, female ordination and the death penalty; and most still won't believe you have to obey those church teachings to be a good Catholic...
Cardinal William Levada, a high-ranking Vatican official whom Pope Benedict XVI hand-picked to succeed him in his old job as head of the Vatican's doctrinal office, offered early signs on Friday that the Vatican will change its internal, or canon, laws concerning the church's response to sexual abuse allegations - a matter that has become the main topic of the Pope's American visit. The changes would follow adjustments made some time ago involving the church's statute of limitations with regard to some particularly egregious offenses. The Cardinal suggested that laws meriting amendment may involve statutes...