A recent research report into reactions to the recent State Visit showed that the majority of respondents were neither hostile nor enthusiastic but rather disinterested. The media made the most of the occasion for news and we are left with the impression that though the visit did not attract as large a crowd as on the last (non-state) Papal visit a lot of people did go to meet with him. As a political event it was a success and many were pleased that the Pope challenged us about the Spiritual state of our nation. This I suppose was what was expected of him.
However this is a Pope who not so long ago declared that only those baptised in as Roman Catholics could be considered Christian and whose church is currently mired in continuing revelations of sexual immorality of some of its members.I wonder what would have been the response if instead of judging us we had all been called to repentance starting with the Church. We have indeed all sinned and those who profess to be God’s people most of all.Transformation starts with confession and repentance and waiting on God to renew us. Then perhaps those outside the institutional Church will want to hear more.
The Church leadership is trying to roll back the tide of change, to maintain its power and status in the world but this in vain. All denominations have recognised that the old traditional approach to being Church in the West, is no longer viable and numbers attending services has dwindled. New ways of being Church have been growing at the grassroots with different denominational groups working together for renewal in the power of the Holy Spirit and there are signs of new growth as a result, but much of the distortions and accretions which have been developed over the centuries in the Church as a traditional institution have to go.
But the Roman Church perhaps does not find it easy to admit that traditions and practices which have developed over centuries may no longer be relevant or helpful.
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