The Catholic Church, of which I am a member, needs to urgently change not just rules or customs, but its fundamental attitude, which is top-down authoritarianism.
Bottom-up democracy has its faults, its extremes, but the church, like the Scouts, the unions and other male authoritarian structures, faces irrelevance as its ageing demographic clings to the 1950s.
Its claim to authority is based not on the Bible, which many others also revere, but on its own history and structure.
Younger Australians simply will not be talked down to, nor given faith-based strictures as truth without proof. There's too much information available.
The Church will not die if it opens itself up to member participation, questions the unchallengeability of the Old Testament, accepts gays and women as equal and in all roles, and institutes discussion of all issues to do with spirituality - which is its core business. On the contrary, it will spring back to life, relevant and helpful.
It is a religion of the book, but the book is a guide and Jesus told St Peter that whatever shall be loosed on earth, shall be loosed also in Heaven, or words to that effect.

Bridey:

Welcome to the Forum. I'm also a Catholic and I agree with you completely. I highly recommend the book by Dr Paul Collins called,
"Believers: Does Australian Catholicism Have A Future?" (With a Foreword by Geraldine Doogue). Paul Collins is one of Australia's most respected commentators on the Catholic Church. A graduate of Harvard Divinity School and the Australian National University, he is a former priest and a historian and broadcaster. He's also a former specialist editor of religion for the ABC. His publications include,
"Mixed Blessings," "No Set Agenda," "God's Earth," "Between the Rock and a Hard Place," and "Burn." Dr Collins tell us:

"Catholicism has remarkable staying power, an ability to survive unmatched by any contemporary institution. If you've been around for just on 2000 years you will have learned a few tricks... This doesn't mean that the church will be perfect or that parts of it won't wither and die, or that it won't make mistakes... Australian Catholics need to keep in mind that there is a danger that the magnitude of the task facing the church might engender a sense of pessimism and hopelessness however, Catholicism has survived precisely because ultimately it is adaptable and able to change. Often this energy comes late in the piece when everything seems to be in dire straits and it may well emerge from the most unexpected source..."

Collins adds that, " ...the other thing in our favour is that the Australian church is just the right size. Not too small so that it becomes incestuous or destroys itself in in-fighting, not too large so that it becomes impossible to change. Personally, I am optimistic, that Catholicism in Australia will survive, certainly with lesser numbers, but with more commitment and ministerial energy. But to achieve that Catholics will require genuine local leadership and a willingness to confront both the difficulties and the opportunities that the church now faces. My feeling is that we are uniquely placed in Australia to be able to do precisely that."

Bridey

Start your own religion if you don't like the one you are in. I became a Christian so my conscience led me out of the Catholic church. The Green faith promotes homosexuality and feminism so maybe that faith better suites your worldview. Don't however be arrogant enough to insist that an institution change because you don't like it.

Where would you find a catholic that does not break the rules of the church. It's just as well they have confession, and probably still tell lies. The church needs AU to run it's own rules or else the church will demise.
How many people going to church and living in sin.
They are leading a fraudulent life. Never get to be a saint.

I've always maintainted that if they had named somebody as wise as
Paul Collins as pope, Catholic Church pews would not have
emptied out, as they have over the last few decades.

But the hierarchy at the Vatican does not need to care. I gather
that the Church is a huge landholder, even in Australia, from
legacies left to them by previous followers. So with the Vatican
Bank coffers pretty full to overloaded and no tax paid on their
assets around the world, the hierarchy can do as it pleases really,
never mind what the majority of followers think.

As long as enough true believers leave them a share of their assets,
all is sweet. Selling people a ticket to heaven remains the most
profitable business that I know of.

Runner, Bridey is stating a well known fact.

The Catholic Church [in which church goers are fully aware] is well over due for an overhaul and total restructure along with hopefully petitioning to the Pope for representatives to marry and enjoy their lives while adhering to morals and values at the same time.

It is incorrect and unfair to shoot the messenger Runner.