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Controversy and critícísm con–
tínue to swirl around Pope
Paul VI . Even hís closest
advísers ask : " What does the
future hold for the Catholíc
Church?" Here is a glímpse
i n to that future.
T
HE CATHOLIC CHURCH
today
ÍS
a house divided. "Rome must
do something, or the Church
in each country will go its own way
and the Pope will become a figure
only for the tourists, or a kind of
Dalai Lama." So warns theologian
Piet Schoonenberg.
The time-honored phrase, "Rome
has spoken, the case is closed ," has
been rendered virtually meaningless
among 20th century Catholics.
The result is a growing crisis of
confidence and a uthority facing
Pope Paul and Church leaders. This
crisis has led to an impor tant
change in Vatican thinking.
A Church in Need
The Catholic Church finds itself
in need of a political institution to
assist in stopping the spread of lib–
eralism sweeping through it. But the
Church in Europe is not alone in
suffering from division. Europe
itself is suffering from division -
political, social and religious. Little
wonder that the Vatican and Eu–
rope are therefore moving closer to–
gether in a common need for
security and self-preservation.
For the first time in 155 years, the
Vatican papal state has decided to
make its voice heard on an inter–
national political platform. Leaders
of the Roman Catholic Church have
felt for many years that it was not
the duty of the Church to interfere
in the política! quarrels of the world.
But times have changed. Rome and
Europe need each other for mutual
survival.
Pope Paul's unofficial foreign
mmtster, Msgr. Agostino Casaroli,
was directed to head the four-man
delegation to the European Security
Conference at Helsinki. Not since
1818 has such an event occurred.
But why, we ask, has the press
overlooked its significance?
How the Floodgates of
Dissent Were Opened
More than ten years ago the late
Pope John XXIII was painfully
aware of the divisive forces that
were building up in the Church. To
heal the wounds then affiicting
Catholicism, Pope John called the
Second Vatican Council. lts purpose
was first to settle the Catholic
Ch urch's own interna! problems.
"Then after performing that dutiful
work, after removing whatever on a
human leve! could hamper a speed–
ier progress," stated Pope John, "we
will display the Church
in
all its
splendor, without spot and without
wrinkle, and we will tell all sepa-
The continuing crisis in the
by
Paul Knedel