The Church under pressure: Reform or counter-reform?
PARIS (FRANCE)
LaCrois International
March 26, 2019
By Massimo Faggioli
Bishop Charles Morerod, who is recognized as one the leading intellectuals among the Catholic hierarchy of Europe, recently told La Croix "the Church reforms itself under the influence of seemingly adverse forces."
The 57-year-old Swiss Dominican, head of the Diocese of Lausanne-Genève-Fribourg since 2011, was referring to the sexual abuse crisis and how it is putting pressure for change on the Catholic Church. Mounting pressure is a key factor to consider in the debates within the Church about the institutional reforms that are needed to address how bishops have failed in handling sex abuse cases.
But this pressure on the institutional Church is undeniably different today from that of the past. First, there is pressure from internal debate (within the Church), as well as from external forces (the media, society and culture, the state and the judiciary). This pressure is more visible and public than in the past. And it is also something much more difficult for the institutional Church to control, not by coercive measures, but in the sense of controlling the narrative.
LaCrois International
March 26, 2019
By Massimo Faggioli
Bishop Charles Morerod, who is recognized as one the leading intellectuals among the Catholic hierarchy of Europe, recently told La Croix "the Church reforms itself under the influence of seemingly adverse forces."
The 57-year-old Swiss Dominican, head of the Diocese of Lausanne-Genève-Fribourg since 2011, was referring to the sexual abuse crisis and how it is putting pressure for change on the Catholic Church. Mounting pressure is a key factor to consider in the debates within the Church about the institutional reforms that are needed to address how bishops have failed in handling sex abuse cases.
But this pressure on the institutional Church is undeniably different today from that of the past. First, there is pressure from internal debate (within the Church), as well as from external forces (the media, society and culture, the state and the judiciary). This pressure is more visible and public than in the past. And it is also something much more difficult for the institutional Church to control, not by coercive measures, but in the sense of controlling the narrative.
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