Posted on 03/22/2008 5:58:28 AM PDT by NYer
DENVER, Colo. (Denver Catholic Register) - In a fact-filled talk in Denver on March 4, journalist-author John Allen spoke about mega-trends facing the Church and tied them to Pope Benedict XVI’s upcoming U.S. visit. The pope will visit Washington D.C. and New York City April 15-20.
Allen is the Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, and also a CNN correspondent. He spoke before a sizeable crowd of 250 people in Bonfils Hall at the John Paul II Center. Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., invited Allen, a close friend, to speak.
Allen spoke about the Catholic Church becoming a world church, evangelical Catholicism, the biotech revolution and globalization. A book he is writing on mega-trends facing the Church will be published this year.
The first mega-trend facing the Catholic Church, according to Allen, is the transition to a “world church” due to growing Catholic populations in Africa, Asia and South America. Allen calls this “Southern Catholicism.” In the past, the Church has been dominated by Europe and North America.
This population shift, he said, will move Church leadership to a more global focus.
Hemispheric differences
Allen noted several common characteristics of “Southern Catholicism,” including that most priests are morally conservative, but politically liberal. This is because the priests and the Church are often the only voice for the people to defend the common good in non-democratic and often tyrannical governments. For example, priests in Zimbabwe wrote a letter to the President Robert Mugabe telling him it is time for him to leave.
Southern Catholicism is also biblical and not speculative. The supernatural is “very palpable and real,” Allen said. Miracles and exorcisms are the “meat and potatoes” of a supernatural spirituality.
(Excerpt) Read more at catholic.org ...
The second mega-trend facing the Catholic Church is evangelical Catholicism. There is a strong emphasis on a traditional Catholic identity as a reaction against secular humanism, which has eroded Catholic institutions. Evangelical Catholicism includes a strong public proclamation, and faith as a matter of personal choice rather than a cultural influence.
Contemporary Europe is very secular, Allen said. According to a recent poll, only 27 percent of Italians think religion is very important. In comparison, 59 percent of Americans think religion is very important. This growing secularism is a major concern for the current papacy, he said.
Some examples of evangelical Catholicism include changes to the liturgy to reflect more accurate translations of the original biblical text, Catholic education and a culture of life.
Possible papal echoes might be a call to a strong sense of Catholic identity and a call to foster religious vitality in the United States.
This is a good thing. Our faith should be something we have thought and prayed about, it should be based in reason not merely handed down from our parents. I'm not sure that an actual public proclamation is necessary, if you are living a faith-filled life it should be readily apparent to all who know you.
Isn’t a good portion of South America in the southern hemisphere, not to mention Australia?
I will read the complete article later. So these might change for me.
“most priests are morally conservative, but politically liberal.”
All leftism, from the limousine liberalism of a rock star to the murderous insanity of Pol Pot, is of and from Satan.
That includes the liberal politics of these priests.
“Some examples of evangelical Catholicism include changes to the liturgy to reflect more accurate translations of the original biblical text”
More accurate? More accurate according to whom? Are these the translations that have Our Lord crucified between two “revolutionaries” rather than two thieves?
More accurate than Saint Jerome’s Vulgate, or the Douay-Rheims?
In my experience, “more accurate translation” usually boils down to, “rewritten to bring it in line with the Communist Manifesto.”
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