MODERN CHALLENGES AND CHANGES BEING FACED BY THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH TODAY.
In 2025, we have travelled aeons of time from the prevailing intellectual, social, religious, and political customs prevailing in the Dark Ages. Our present civilisation, to a great extent, has rejected authoritarianism. The Papal See can no longer compel the obedience of kingdoms and peoples by the issuance of Papal Bulls. In all societies on planet Earth, there are penal institutions where the uncooperative and outright sociopaths are periodically incarcerated. This practice is universal, not only in communist countries such as Russia and China but also in large Western democracies such as the United States of America. In other words, sanctions previously employed by the Roman Catholic Church during the times of its supremacy have now been usurped by modern secular authorities.
In North America and Europe, the rise of secularism, initially a movement that challenged the relevance of the Christian Church, has been a reality with which the church has been forced to contend unsuccessfully. Troubled members of a congregation no longer go to see the local priest for desperately needed help; they make a trip to the Department of Social Services to get Food Stamps or Medicaid Health Insurance. Others go to some other agency to deal with drug addiction or sexual abuse issues. This secularism has resulted not only in large-scale apostasy of church members but also in a decline in the number of people seeking to become new parishioners. It seems to this writer that the more complex and pressing our social problems become, the less relevant and potent are the responses of the institutions of the Church. Over the years, for example, the Roman Catholic Church has built schools and hospitals. But in the twenty-first century, much more needs to be done.
Another major problem that is eating away at the nucleus of the church in general is the apparent lack of sincerity, not only among participating members but also among the clergy and other leaders of church institutions. Generally, members of the laity cannot be disciplined for lack of sincerity, but it’s a significant problem when people don’t appear to be practising what they preach. In ancient times, Jesus termed this behavioural pattern hypocrisy. “Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. “Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.” Matthew 23:1-7 (NKJV).
The recurring issue of sexual perversion is not only a problem among Catholic priests, it’s a twenty-first-century crisis in modern society. It’s a dilemma pervasive throughout the Christian world. Many so-called prominent and influential Christians have been caught up in severe forms of sexual misconduct.
The notion of perversion has always been in league with norm and deviance, law and its transgression. And this is the reason why, even though the word appeared in the middle of the nineteenth century to designate acts that already existed but which were not qualified as such, this word carries within itself the memory of its Latin origin: pervertere. This term means, first of all, to turn upside down, to overturn (a construction); later it develops a connotation which means overturning customs. Perversitas comes from this: it means something extravagant, astounding, absurd, but later it assumes the connotation of corruption, erosion, disorder, depravation. It signifies a change which, with time, causes something to pass from a so-called normal or healthy state to an abnormal one. Thenceforth, the term is used differently according to different cultures. Perversity is clearly linked to evil (as opposed to good), to cruelty (as opposed to compassion), and lastly to the general disturbance of the normative order. To pervert someone is to corrupt him, to teach him to overturn norms. This leads onto the question of sexuality. In fact, whether it is visible or repressed, sexuality is always involved as though it were present in all types of perversity, and thus perversion. It is, on the one hand, the idea of a dominant subject in relation to a dominated subject (the most significant and real form of class conflict), and, on the other, the diversion from the procreative function. In other words, sexuality is at the heart of all perverted acts, even when they have nothing to do with sexual perversion. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHOANALYSIS: Some Facets Of Perversion
Idolatry has always been a problem in the spiritual realm. In ancient times, however, worshippers who strayed from The Lord Almighty fashioned idols of human figurines, large or small, and then worshipped them. The problem is still prevalent today, but newer and different idols have been invented. People now worship expensive cars, yachts, bars of gold, pricey real estate, fashionable attire, and great wealth. Many times, the veneration of such vanities seduces them into neglect of the poor and suffering. The Master Himself warned against such tendencies:
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-20 (NKJV).
Just because we don’t bow down to physical statues doesn’t mean we are free from idols. It is easy to read about idols in the scriptures and laugh at the ancients. Because our idols are more sophisticated, we tend to deny their existence. What/who is it that gets most of your time and attention? What is it that dominates your prayer, the thing for which God is simply a means to an end? What is the one thing that, if you lost, would wreck your whole world? What is it that gives you an ultimate sense of value and worth? That’s your idol! Interestingly, our idols are often good things; they are often blessings from God. The problem is we take a good thing and turn it into a God-thing. We give more attention to gifts than to the giver. We pursue blessings and, in the process, scorn the Blesser. MEDIUM: Idol Worship In The Twenty-First Century by Daniel Addo, September 10, 2017.
Some significant changes made by the Roman Catholic Church during the nineteenth Century include tolerance for the dignity of the individual to worship as he chooses. It also provides for the cessation of all hostile or repressive actions by any state to enforce the dogmas of the Church upon persons or governments. If liturgical awareness begins about age six, only those of us fifty years and older remember the Latin Mass, which preceded the introduction of the Novus Ordo in November 1969. This introduction, over 40 years ago, would seem to be a significant change in the celebration of the liturgy in the past one hundred years. The first important change in liturgical discipline occurred on 15 August 1910, when Pope St. Pius X lowered the age of first reception of Holy Communion from typically the age of twelve to the age of seven. With this change, all of the faithful were encouraged to receive Holy Communion frequently. Catholics used to abstain from meat on all Fridays. This was changed to Ash Wednesday and Fridays in Lent. They used to say Mass in Latin; now they use the vernacular. At the Mass, the priest used to have his back to the congregation. Now he faces the congregation. QUORA: How Has The Catholic Church Changed In The Last 50 Years?
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