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Catholica
Internationally, the Catholic Church continues to slide towards oblivion — or at least towards the “smaller, purer Church” envisaged by Pope Benedict. There are possibly only three ways the slide can be reversed: by the offering of more rosaries and masses for God to intervene and send more vocations and halt the slide; Brian Pitts in our forum today outlines, with the help of Dr Hans Küng, the second way — by a return to the simplicity of the Gospel message of Jesus [LINK]; or the third way, for those who believe if it is to have any chance of restoring credibility in the educated, first world might well be by the program being offered by Bishop Geoffrey Robinson in his new book “For Christ’s Sake: End Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church … For Good”. The editor of Catholica, Brian Coyne, today offers a review and overview of Bishop Robinson’s new book and what he is proposing.
For Christ’s Sake : here’s a positive contribution you can make to our world…
Let me lay my cards on the table at the outset: I am pessimistic that Catholicism can be restored today to a position of primacy, or even significant relevance any longer, in the big debates that go on in society that shape the future of civilisations. I think we (all of humankind) might be living through a huge sea-change in outlook towards the entire religious and spiritual dimension of life. Religions as influential and large as the Catholic Church have disappeared before today into the sand that archaeologists sift through centuries and millennia later. They all believed their religion would last forever and was guided by some Supreme Deity. I don’t believe though we are watching the rise of atheism, or any sort of anarchism, as the significant alternative. Many people today might have been sucked out of the church by the things people like Pope Benedict blame, such as relativism, secularism, consumerism, etc., etc.. Many though still place great importance on the spiritual side of life. They might have given up on the traditional church communities that nourished their forebears, but they are still searching for the language and means of understanding those powerful forces, or that powerful force, that seems to draw us forward to create a better, more civilised and loving world.
Bishop Robinson’s new book is available for pre-order in Paperback edition from Garratt Publishing, Fishpond and The Book Depository in the Catholica Spiritual Marketplace HERE.
Bishop Geoffrey Robinson is about to launch a project on the 3rd June, based around a new book, that outlines one of the two proposals that I believe, outside of some direct miraculous intervention from God himself, offers any hope of bringing Catholicism back from the brink of societal irrelevance. If it is to work though it requires your enthusiastic input.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.