The battle for the future of the Catholic Church will not end the doctrine

Digest opened free editor

Rola Khaleda, FT editor, chooses her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.

The writer is a biography of Pope Francis and participated in her authorship, “Let’s dream: the way to a better future” with him

Today, the Cardinals are sad and buried Pope Francis. While doing this, they will have secret looks at each other, and they wonder who will come after that.

The nerves will work on a high anticipation to elect the Caliph 266 to Saint Peter, however they will not be alone. Cardinate believes that their mission is to distinguish the choice of God, and they have the Holy Spirit to help them. For this, they should think about the state of the world and the church, listen carefully to each other, and keep an open mind and heart. From Monday until they go to the scope in early May, the following papacy perimeter will begin to appear, in daily discussions in the Synod Hall, and in informal evening gatherings where they will collect names. “I heard good things about the Cardinal X. What do you know about it?”

As when buying a property, it is one thing to create a list of ideal qualities and the other to consider what is actually on the market. No one Cardinal can meet all expectations: the options must be taken, which in turn reflects the priorities. Here, views differ. but Good Battle Clections between the Blocs of “Progressive” and the blocks of “conservatives” that argue about ethical or ideological questions may be the least beneficial way to frame these differences.

This was largely true once, when the Europeans decided the papal elections. But the Catholic Church today is a global multi-polar institution consisting of “centers”, which is the fact that Francis-the first non-European Pope in many centuries-seeks to think about the diversity of his nominations.

Cardinals currently come from 94 different countries. It is true that Europe is still heavy weight with 53 voters, but its gatherings are shrinking quickly. Most Catholics these days in the Americas, which have 37 voters. But gatherings grow faster in Asia and Africa, which have 23 and 18 voters, respectively.

While the Church is struggling in the West to preserve its heavy legacy of real estate, it is in the southern continents lacking the resources necessary to build churches and schools quickly enough to expand a herd. Cultural differences are now increasingly constituted the discussion of ethical questions, but these are not major differences about the doctrine itself, regarding how to apply that doctrine.

It is useful to fram more differences between the Cardinate in terms of how to preach the church. How should the Gospel bring to society, in order to create a house for all of this that better reflects what Jesus called the “Kingdom of God”? This relates to what one might call the “style” of the Church – its way of being, its culture and mentality. Here are some differences between the Cardinals that work deeply, as shown in their responses to the Francis era.

The reforms of the late Pope reflected his deep understanding of what the Church must do with what he called “changing the age”, which was characterized by the general expulsion of Christianity from law and culture. Francis has exhausted the “negative view” of its decreasing social importance of the Church, contrary to what he called the “distinctive point of view.” The negative view, born in frustration when losing the status, seeks to recover or formulate what is attached to it. Her criticism of secularism is the masks of what Francis described as “nostalgia for a sacred world, which is an additional society where the church and its ministers had greater strength and social importance.”

On the contrary, the distinctive view understands dramatic transformations in the past few decades as a shock that God has given to the Church gives the opportunity to change its internal culture and how it relates to the world, in order to perform what Francis better called “the style of God.” Last year, he talked about the need to embrace “the Christian minority or the best, the Christian witness.” This is the witness of mercy and joy, humility and service, simplicity and freedom, and love that forgives, where the church, which was freed from the attachments, can better reflect God’s special way to link to humanity, and build a more brotherly world.

In the way he practiced the papacy, Francis gave us a master’s style. He was a captivating missionary, a convincing teacher, attractive and humble, who was interested in the complexity of people’s lives. Not afraid of diversity, everyone allowed “watching”, especially those who fit with society. The extensive numbers in Rome this week are evidence of its deep effect.

However, this style made many leaders in the church uncomfortable, especially in the United States and Eastern Europe, where Catholicism remains in the cultural war. Here Francis is accused of reducing the job demands, and clarifying the clarity of the church education. Such criticism reveals the idea in which some Cardinals – nothing more than others – remains from the Cardinals: for an institution that suffers from morals through teaching, which requires loyalty, gives a cultural identity and seeks the alliances of power.

But the world for which he has moved has moved. The future of the Church now lies, as in the first centuries, in its witness from the bottom, in its ability to walk with researchers, researchers and wounded in this world. The 2025 CONCLAVE struggle will not overcome the doctrine, but whether the institutional Christianity is seen as an invitation to return to the bottom, or to wake up to the transfer embodied by Francis strongly.