The Catholic churchs old guard faces a mortal threat. Its called Pope Francis
Thursday 26 January 2017 06.22 EST
Last modified on Thursday 26 January 2017 07.02 EST
Joanna Moorhead
“Pope in condom row”, say the headlines. In fact, this row has nothing much to do with condoms. The prophylaxes in question, which might or might not have been distributed by an outreach project run under the auspices of an ancient Catholic order, are merely the trigger for a dispute that is more important even than the rights and wrongs of contraception, an issue the Catholic church has struggled badly with for over a half a century.
The real issue in the row that resulted in the sacking of the British head of the Knights of Malta is the most important question of all in the Catholic church: what is the right way to represent Christ’s teaching in the world of today?
In one corner, we have Matthew Festing, a 67-year-old former auctioneer, in his bright red, gold-tasselled suit. He represents the old-style Catholic church, the church in which rules were made at the top and adhered to by those at the bottom. The church he loved, and would love to be part of still, was the church of the 1950s, the last hurrah of the institution that got blown away by Vatican II and the liberalism of the 1960s. As far as he is concerned, the Catholic church is an unchanging institution whose members, once married, remain married until death and who, if they want to limit their families, must do so using only natural methods of contraception.
In the other corner we have the man who has over the last four years become the rock star of global politics: Pope Francis, an 80-year-old Jesuit in a white cassock who has emerged from the shadows to become one of the most authentic, respected and impressive world leaders of our time.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/26/catholic-church-pope-francis-old-guard-opponents
