Re-open church windows

Catholic New Times, April 24, 2005 by Marlene Campbell, Alex Campbell

I would love to see a person of prayer and spirituality, who has the courage to return to Vatican II and, even better, call a Vatican III (or a Sao Paulo I), with lay participation. I hope the new pope will inspire and encourage the whole church to be leader and example in respecting the environment in very practical ways, who has the courage to re-open the windows of the church ... and re-open those "closed" topics of birth control, condoms to deal with the HIV/AIDS pandemic, same-sex unions, sacraments for divorced people, intercommunion, women's ordination, married priests, etc. I hope that the new pope will quickly invite women, lay and religious, into the curia (if we are to have one) and other decision-making bodies in the church administration, and thereby begin to give a voice to more than 50 per cent of the church's membership. I hope that the new pope decentralizes very quickly and gives autonomy back to the local dioceses and national conferences of bishops.

--Marlene and Alex Campbell, CNT readers living in Ottawa.