Any thing more or less than Jesus is adulterated.
I’m glad somebody has picked up on this topic. I hear about it frequently from a friend in Brazil. Protestant Evangelical churches are making HUGE inroads amongst the young populations of South America. Mainly because they preach the Good News in a joyful manner and in simple language that can be understood and which the people relate and respond to.
By contrast Benedict’s wish for a smaller, more insular church expressing itself with arcane pre-Vatican II language
would have a very difficult time keeping up.
The problem is that the Catholic Church adopted the mainline Protestant model (ricebowl Christianity, with varying degrees of Marxism) combined with a bit of Pentecostalist Protestantism. This meant that these “Christians” would hang out until they got disenchanted with their latest pastor and then were approached by Muslims.
I read several years ago (sorry, I don’t remember where) that the largest Muslim convert group in Latin America is former Evangelical Christians. They are very personally oriented, much more so than Catholics, and if they suddenly decide they don’t like that person or if there is a change in leadership, they abandon the whole project.
And the Muslims are waiting.