My thoughts must come with a warning, I no longer think any God ever lived and feel quite sheepish about the younger me who did,too think/know, in my view while much good can be found in believers much harm comes from any faith, it is my view the Catholic Church is dying, it has not handled the pedophilia thing well at all, the Pope in fact should face the same charges as his South Australian Bishop, ending what can only be seen as a reason some came in to the service of this Church ,celibacy, would have shown the Church was willing to change, good thread Foxy

Dear Belly,

I have a deep and personal belief. However I don't
want to convert anybody or preach to anybody.

Does the Catholic Church have a future? - I don't
know. Speaking to my Catholic friends - many of them
increasingly find it hard to relate to images of God
in heaven who watches over us, distant and separate,
an all-powerful being whose arbitrary decisions are
incomprehensible.

What the church needs is genuine leadership and a
willingness to confront both the difficulties and the
opportunities that the church faces. Whether it will
be able to do that - only time will tell. Catholicism
does have a remarkable staying power and I suspect that
it's survived this long because of its ability to adapt
and change. Whether it continues to do that we shall
have to wait and see.

Some good history and good points. Thanks for bringing this topic up Foxy.

Dear NNS,

Thank You for your kind words.

I'm no Pollyanna about the Church - but it is
embedded in my identity, which means that I
know all too well where it falls short. However
I personally can't imagine my life without it.
There are serious challenges facing the Catholic
church. Obviously the aging of priests, the
apparent lack of new candidates, the resistance to
drawing back married ordained men, and dealing
with loss of trust regarding the clergy - all
these devastating facts could amount to a
perfect storm on a pretty-close horizon. Yet
inducing hopelessness is not my aim - personally I am
optimistic that things will work out in the end.

Dear Foxy,

«as far as I know there seems to be no theological or doctrinal reason why the church cannot ordain - suitably qualified married men.»

There may or may not be theological/doctrinal reasons (I am not that familiar with the theology/doctrine of the Catholic church), but I can see one GOOD reason: so that clergy provides a personal example of celibacy. You wrote so yourself: "What the church needs is genuine leadership".

Celibacy is a high ideal, well beyond where most of us currently are, so it is difficult to find enough candidates who are, or willing to be, TRULY celibate.

The church's mistake was in preferring quantity over quality. It must now become smaller, but purer!

Yuyutsu,
Celibacy isn't a high ideal because it's far from ideal.
A happy and faithful marriage is the ideal. Celibacy is at best a poor second.