Thanks for this superb piece of writng.  As always with you, you nail it perfectly.  Oh, that the lads might listen.  Fingers crossed, but I'm certainly not optimistic.  Thanks again for your good words word and analysis. 

Mr Carroll, It is so important right now to have someone like you who is both knowledgeable and honest. I can't tell you how much your columns are appreciated. But here's what I think needs to happen. 1) The cardinals have to come clean on two important issues: A) The doctrine that says the Pope enjoys, by divine institution, supreme, full, immediate, and universal power in the care of souls; B) The doctrine that says when a priest is ordained, the angels in heaven genuflect to him, and he becomes an "alter Christus", another Christ. They should come out of the conclave dressed as ordinary men, and say that the priests, bishops, cardinals, and the pope have no such special powers, and announce that The Papacy has been abolished. They should say that their role in the church has been changed to "facilitator" to help people communicate with God on their own, but they (the clergy) have no special powers beyond the individual, to communicate with God on their behalf. 2) All men and women, married or single, regardless of sexual orientation, are welcome to become "facilitators" 3) their doctrines on gays and contraception are wrong and they are going to work to right those issues. Yes, it's drastic and beyond reality that they would actually do this, but it is what really needs to happen.

Even if these things were up for discussion, history is not on the side of change.  The report of the Pontifical Commission on Population, Family and Birth overwhelming concluded that contraception is not intrinsically evil.  The Pontifical Biblical Commsion's draft report concluded that nothing in the New Testament or Scripture precluded the ordination of women.  Both Commission's conclusions were rejected out of hand.

The seemingly insurmountable obstacle to change is the fact that the hierarchy suffers from AFS (Arthur Fonzarelli Syndrome).  It's a debilitating condition which renders those afflicted incapable of saying "I was wrong."

Good article, but unrealistic that any change will happen.  The Church has always viewed women as "breeders," not equal partners in anything.  Meet the new boss, same as the old boss, as the song goes.

Geez...if we just had gay married lesbian preists that have had abortions everything would be ritgh in the church.....

While Mr. Carroll does a fine job of leveling the Church it seem almost unfair.  The Catholic Church is such an easy punching bag.  Yet intstitutionalize religion regardless of denomination or religion for that matter is such a walking disaster in the modern world that an editorial against the Catholic Church seems almost discriminatory.  What can be said of religion any religion that turns god into some squalid refugee from the insane asylum.  Twisted with a thought process worst than that of the average man.  Religious institutions by their very nature turn away from any rational concept of god.  God becomes merely a tool for the implimentation of whatever tortured philosophical view those in power choose to impose upon the faithful.

Degradation of women, suppression of the institutions own suppressed issues, god as the enforcer.  People love to beat on the fallacies of faith and those who have faith.  Frankly I admire to a great degree and am jeaous of those who have faith for faith is nothing more than hope for the future.  Not faith in a Church mind you, but just faith in something, almost anything.

I would welcome the act of the edifice of religion to come crashing down, except it is so important to so many that it leaves me with the hope that a restoration is possible.  I don't but many people do need the edifice, the hope that the church that any religion can bring.  For the rest of us we can only hope that religion will do something besides divide people.  We can only hope the church can find a way to represent something rational, something reasonable, something that a god might like.

Thanks, as always a much needed facing of the truth. What do you think Christ would do if he walked into the Vatican today?

I don't know why any of this should concern the good cardinals. I saw one of  them interviewed yesterday, and he said the "only job of a cardinal is to elect the pope." Basically, then, they sit around with nothing to do but cause mischief for however many years inbetween elections. Nice job if you can get it.

Jesus said "my kingdom is not of this world"....he had it nailed perfectly.

The Catholic Church needs to allow men to marry and have children, and have the opportunity to live at least a part of their lives like the rest of us. Then, maybe, they may be able to relate to all of us too.

Z

Will the Church address its real issues? Fat chance.

Mr.Carroll, God bless you! 

The church needs to reform or it will crumble under its own hypocrisy and corruption. Its members from Africa and South America are only a decade or so away on what is happening to the church in North America and Europe. With no flock shepards are not needed.

There you go again, Jimmy. Lets start at the beginning. Gays are equal with you and me in the eyes of God. On this - you and I and the church agree. The incidence of gays in the sexual abuse scandals was higher than for heterosexuals and so the Church made some corrections to help eleviate that problem. We both would agree that "clericalism" was also a big factor, maybe the biggest. However, there has been some strange stuff going on in the process to improve acceptance of gays generally - given that they are equal with us. You won't like me saying this, but I use my eyes to see and my ears to hear with and my nose to smell with. My genetals also serve natural purposes which the church highly regards. We need to examine what it is to "use" people, as opposed to giving them love. The Church, just like Jesus Christ, has spoken about that and it does a very good job at that, even while being poor followers of the message in recent past. The abuse is not a result of Jesus' message, but of what people who call themselves Christians do. A more humble hierarchy woulkd be a good thing, but that does not include acceptance of artificial methods of birth control which only make3 us users of each other instead of partners in God's great plan.

you are looking at the church with today's lense. The Church looks at it through 100's of years. The Church will not and should not change with the time to meet societies definition of what should be normal. I do not see people calling for changes in Islam or Judaism.

These priests are "lifers" -- they get in, and there they stay, for their entire lives.  Pope Benedict resigned and made history.  More of them should resign.   What is the average age of the priests in the conclave?  Have you seen a cross-section of them?  There was a photo shot of them on the news, and I'd wager that none of them are under 65, if they are lucky (they don't age well ... some probably look at least 10 years older then they are; I don't think you'd find a more over-weight, unhealthy bunch of sourp*sses elsewhere) -- so you have to ask yourself if these are the people who are going to create a sea change, when they don't even know what that means.  Space aliens have more knowledge of modern society.  No new blood, no change.  What halfway normal human wants to live their life like that?  Rabbis and ministers can marry and live among the rest of society; until priests can do likewise, they can't possibly attract the type of individuals that are needed to put the Catholic Church into the context of the 21st century.  GL.   

Sorry, but I am completely baffled by the phrase "deep-seated homosexual tendencies." Did Benedict mean that being bisexual or closeted was okay? And what measures were used to determine the level of homosexuality? Whatever they were, they apparently didn't work too well. I am deeply angered by the whole stance of the Catholic Church vis-à-vis women and gays. I think it epitomizes the old saying, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

If men had babies, abortion would be a sacrament with this bunch

Not mentioned here is the strident assertion "The only way to salvation is the Catholic church"  uttered by the former pope. This flies in the face of every spiritual scholar in the world, who as one realize spiritualty is a huge help and religion historically has been a detriment. The many practices point to the same goal. Iron clad religious doctrine, modus operandi of Benedict, has resulted historically in tremendous misery, war, injustice and death. Philosophies of the founders of most religions have been corrupted and improvised to an extent where the original intent and message is often no longer recognizable. If Benedict was born in India, he would have been a Hindu. How many died as a result of Benedict's pronouncement "Islam is a religion of violence?" Good riddance to this religious leader, spiritual flop.

I think some of you are learning about the Catholic Church by reading the Boston Globe or NY Times. You cannot judge the Church by these sources. Reading "Jesus of Nazareth" by Pope Benedict might change your perspective. It has been well received by Christians other than Catholics and some Jews too who appreciate Benedicts respectful presentation of the differences. You need to read something by intelligent people who espouse te faith to understand why they take the positions they do, not just read it's antagonists.

According to Cardinal Ratzinger in his book - "What It Means to Be a Christian" - 2006, there are laws of love from both Rabbi Hillel and the New Testament that tell you what is needed, basicaly - Love God and your neighbor. He goes on to discuss that in real terms. Before simplifying "...outside the Catholic Church, etc. " try reading that book. It is important to not trivialize these issues.

Carroll is an ex-priest who hates the Catholic Church, and his father was an FBI agent so he hates the United States, and he alternates church bashing with bashing the United States but basically he writes the same two columns over and over and over again.

The real question is:  Did Jesus wear Prana shoes?