Thomas Cahill (author of How the Irish Saved Civilization and many others) writes today in the New York Times about Pope John Paul II's legacy within the Catholic Church. What Cahill has to say, while somewhat myopic in its focus on American and European Catholics, is damning:
But John Paul II's most lasting legacy to Catholicism will come from the episcopal appointments he made. In order to have been named a bishop, a priest must have been seen to be absolutely opposed to masturbation, premarital sex, birth control (including condoms used to prevent the spread of AIDS), abortion, divorce, homosexual relations, married priests, female priests and any hint of Marxism. It is nearly impossible to find men who subscribe wholeheartedly to this entire catalogue of certitudes; as a result the ranks of the episcopate are filled with mindless sycophants and intellectual incompetents. The good priests have been passed over; and not a few, in their growing frustration as the pontificate of John Paul II stretched on, left the priesthood to seek fulfillment elsewhere.If the cardinals--nearly all chosen by John Paul II--fail to choose a successor willing to change direction, Cahill says, "He may, in time to come, be credited with destroying his church."
This is an argument I have made in the past: if the church does not reflect what its members believe, it will not endure. At the very least, to continue down the road of John Paul II will be to turn the church into a refuge for the anti-intellectual, anti-science crowd in America. John Paul II was a very learned man--who happened to cherish throwback notions about sexuality. His successors, born in different times, will have to be exceedingly more ignorant to hew to the course he has set. Time will tell, but this lapsed Catholic is not optimistic.
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