Word: vaticans
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Which returns us to Catholicism. The Second Vatican Council of 1962-65 set off what religion futurist Richard Cimino calls "an explosion of lay ministry." This, plus a persistent priest shortage, caused some parishes to approximate a female pastorate. Circuit-riding priests would stop by a church to celebrate Communion and hear confession. In between, however, women--church trained and often called pastor--ran the parish. Eventually there were at least 300 such arrangements (some say there were thousands), but after John Paul II's 1994 letter banning further talk of ordaining women, the movement tailed off. The Pope...
...security agencies. Their members are often harassed and bullied if they choose not to join the official churches, and even run the risk of losing jobs and having their children barred from school. The administrators of the underground churches, and especially the Catholic Church which remains loyal to the Vatican, are often jailed or sent to labor camps; a considerable number of Catholic bishops are currently detained, while another died last year under mysterious circumstances...
...many other things, a glance at Taiwan undercuts many of the Chinese government's arguments. Taiwan has consistently received unqualified praise in State department reports on religious freedom; independent religion has not somehow hurt patriotism or brought the country under the subtle influence of the Vatican, nor has Christianity displaced traditional religion...
China's recent snub to the Vatican is a timely reminder of the Chinese government's unacceptable record on religious freedom, and it is an issue where the U.S. can actually have an impact. It is time for the U.S. to take a more vocal and vigorous stand to protect the rights and dignity of the religiously observant in China. In Imperial China, the government was at times open to and interested in the ideas of Jesuit missionaries; the U.S. must use its influence to move China's current government towards this tradition of tolerance and away from the cheap...
Still, Lehmann has revealed a latent concern. Says Greeley: "The church has a real problem in that there is no provision in church legislation for a Pope who becomes incapable of acting as Pope." While the Vatican can operate with an incapacitated Pope, important decisions (the naming of bishops) and documents would have to wait until he was well enough to approve of them--or until a new Pope came around. A mentally compromised Pope kept alive artificially would present the church with a constitutional crisis. If a Pope can see that coming, says Greeley, he should choose...