What Can Bring Back the Magic of the Catholic Church

A Catholic pundit who is not clergy wrote a piece recently trying to envision how the denomination can navigate the next decade or two. Apparently, he makes his living writing about the Catholic church. He sees Catholics longing for the past where the loved local priest gave a homely that all is well and the local Bishop wished the priest and all in the diocese well. Now, the link author says, everyone sees a denomination continually wracked by sexual scandal and one closing and selling hundreds of locations. What should be done?

The past cannot be reclaimed, he writes. A new Pope is coming and his main task will be cleaning up the denomination's finances and vetting as best as can be done new priests. By doing this, the link author says, people can at least feel comfortable about the present while acknowledging the terrible past. 

I looked at the comments for quite a while. It was like eavesdropping on a private conversation. Comments on this, almost exclusively Catholic, site was different than Protestant sites. Protestants tend to write short simple posts calling this or that a sin and sighting something from the Bible. Catholics write long rambling posts about official Catholic positions and expand at length their own personal relationships with Mary, etc. It's as if they think readers are intensely interested seeing into the mind of the self-important writers. 

These self-centered, or self-possessed, commenters are the Catholic denomination's biggest problem. I remember a priest friend saying at a dinner party several years ago, "A good religion has a comprehensive set of internal documents and processes." My friend and his entire denomination are inwardly focus on these internal matters as if the entire world shared this obsession. Catholics in the pews are not very interested nor certainly are those outside the denomination. More outward focus would make Catholicism more appealing. 

The link author, with his focus on internal financial affairs, thought little was to be gained by focusing the denomination of broadening its position on gay marriage, marriage of priests and on elevating the role of women. These issues look outward at how the rest of society sees things and it is understandable a devout Catholic cannot see this. Catholicism is a denomination that cannot see the forest for the trees.