In his biography of Pope John Paul, Tad Szulc, who also wrote bio of Fidel, says this pope is tough. He'd rather have a smaller congregation of those who refuse to practice birth control than a larger congregation of those who do. He has to start applying his "tough" standards to the priesthood or the Church will disappear altogether.
Fine. Decimate away. If knocking out one in ten isn't enough, get rid of more. Perverts out! Where's Tomas de Torquemada when you really need him?
AB
The real problem is that this Pope is routinely ignored by a number of bishops and priests. They figure he's gonna die soon, (they rejoiced when he was shot) so why bother listening to him? I overheard a priest say to another that when John Paul dies "we'll get someone in who really knows how to pope". With that kind of a prevailing sentiment JPII can bust a few heads and will still have problems with them. He is on record telling them what they need to do to clean up everything, and they just yawn and go on.
The only solution is for the cardinals and bishops grab their guts and do what's right. Finishing cleaning up the seminaries, kick out all gay priests and if any of them have abused CALL THE COPS. But most importantly, they must make it priority number one to get each other in line. The morals of the Church are not the problem, the leaders have been lax on the job.
When they have cleaned up their acts, God will reward the Church with an abundance of good men who will have at their heart to serve God faithfully. Our Holy Father said one time that there are many young people who are looking to priests to show them the way to Christ and that these young people would joyfully enter the service of the Lord if they are shown a proper example.
Pope John XXIII declared that gays are NOT fit for ordination. This Pope however is conservative in that he believes in closing the ranks around a scandel. I think this Pope is part of the problem. He refuses to say that gays are not fit to be ordained!
It's an easy life if you do not minister to your flock via the Sacraments. This may well explain why it is so difficult in some parishes to go to Confession, or attend Mass and not have your beliefs assaulted with touchy feely nonesense.