Its All Good

NOW BEGINS THE GREAT speculation concerning whether the new pope will be a conservative or a liberal pontiff , who he will be, where he will come from. Can there really be such a thing as a  "liberal" pope? Aren't popes by nature guardians of a very sacred status quo, and hence, conservative?

Well, a liberal pope might be one who considers, tolerates, allows, encourages or decress evolution, change, within the church. The eternal tug of war is always between whether to change, or to remain the same. This is true of all human activity. Change, one way or another, alway occurs, its just a matter of how rapidly and in what form..

At various times "liberal" catholicism has meant saying mass in the vernacular rather than only in latin, or viewing the pope as human, rather than infallable. A modern day liberal pope might be willing to consider homosexuality normal and natural, rather than sinful and /or diseased.

The ideal pope, like the ideal political leader or supreme court justice, might be a person who seems liberal to some, and conservative to others. A person who is open minded enough, flexible enough, to at various times be either or both. An ideal leader is both, and neither.

Whether the catholic hcurch of the distant future will ordain women or permit priests to marry is purely speculative, but what is not speculative, but certain, is that the church of the remote future will be considerably different than it is today, just as today's church has evolved for centuries.

Evolution and change are good. Who needs the inquisition, the crusades, or papal infallibility? Conservatives are best reminded to remember that change is good and necessary. Liberals should bear in mind that change for its own sake is counter productive. It takes all kinds to build a church.