The next pope - what should be his priorities?

With the funeral of John Paul II to-day, we are seeing the end of an era.
He was a good man - I am sure of that, although I didn't agree with all of his policies. Seeing the over half million Poles gathered in Rome to attend the ceremonies, made it clear that JP II will be remembered as one who played an enormous role in the coming of freedom to the eastern bloc countries. With his passing though maybe a different agenda is called for.

My question is: what do you think the next pope should focus on? There are calls for reform in many areas in the church, there are huge problems faced by millions of third-world catholics, esp. in South America, and there has been little movement during JP II's pontificate towards reforming the power structures within the church.

Myself I'd like to see the church taking a stand sgainst corrupt dictatorships etc, allow contraception and condom use, and disburse some of the current absolute power the pope wields over the church back to the grass roots.

Anyone have any thoughts?

 

Yes I do,

what you think the pope ought to do is unrealistic.

 

I'd like to see them get rid of their ban on contraception. With much of Africa being catholic, and also suffering from HIV/AIDS the last thing they need is a catholic ban on condoms...

 

How so?

 

I think the Roman Catholic Church should fix the schism the Eastern and Oriental Rite Orthodox Christian Churches. Although the Roman Church has drifted much further from the original apostolic faith than the East, there is no reason it couldn't happen. Look at all the changes made during Vatican II! They might have to drop or re-examine the filoque clause, papal primacy and infallability, but these are not entirely insurmountable or non-negotiable. For example, I think the Eastern Church would accept the title "First Among Equals" for the Pope, his ancient title.

The above is a spiritual matter, but as others have said, there are more concrete and secular things the Pope should do as well. Their sexual theology could definately be revisited.

 

The next Pope is not going to abandon established Catholic doctrines on issues such as sexuality and papal primacy/infallibility. However, one change he could make (without having to alter any basic theological or moral teachings) is to lift the ban on married priests.

As a Protestant, I have many disagreements with Catholicism, but I have no illusions about Rome recanting on any of these matters. I think their top priority should be to better shepherd their own flock. Most of my Catholic family and friends know less about Catholic teaching than I do, and they are as biblically illiterate as I was during my Catholic upbringing. Nominalism and "cafeteria" Catholicism are the biggest problems facing the Roman church.

 

I totally agree. However, I have found that most Catholics are actually more intune with historical Christianity than most Protestant Christians. That said, Papal Infallibility is a recent theological doctrine that largely came out of the Kulturkampf struggle in Germany for control over their local churches. So much of the current problems with the Roman church actually comes from its autocratic structure. The issue with celibate priests, for example, would have been a mute point if Rome would have allowed more regional autonomy.

While I don't think that they actually will recant, I think that they could water it down a bit and loosen the controls from the top. As for the East, they don't have to give up Papal supremacy, they just have to go back to the ancient agreements between the Patriarchates before the Oriental (Alexandria, Jerusalem, Antioch) churches lost their power, pitting Rome against Constantinople for political v. spiritual control.

Again, Huck, you are right. They probably won't do this and they should focus more on giving their flock the passion for Christ that drives so much of the "competition" in the Evangelical circles.