2013-07-06 John W John W's previous articles
A Rotating Papacy?
This website has a special file called Church is too Western/European
Two new articles were added during the past week:
July 2, 2013: Pope Francis is poised to make history which has the words: Will Francis seek a break from the past to create a pluralistic Catholic Church that better reflects the realities of each continent by attempting to decentralize the existing structure that is yet centralized around Rome? How will he counter those who resist the "de-Europeanizing" process?
July 2, 2013: The Church's Eurocentric identity crisis which has the words: Though only 24 percent of the world’s Catholics live in Europe, so far in the 21st century all are expected to worship, believe and meet Christ as sixth-century Europeans. Is it any wonder that the explosive growth of evangelicalism is taking place in largely Catholic regions?
Having
lived in Hong Kong and China for 28 years, and having spent a lot of that time
with people from Africa and the Sub-Continent during many years of prison
ministry, I have become more and more aware of the sensitivities of
non-Western/European people. In particular I am increasingly aware that the
Church is run by Western/European faces.
c.f. the number
of Western/European faces in the
list of 204 cardinals
Pope Francis has broken the European hold on the papacy, but for how long?
To stop/prevent the Western/European domination of the Church, maybe the papacy could become a rotating leadership, with a new pope every 3 or 5 years from each of the main regions of the world: Africa, Europe, South Asia, East & South East Asia, South America, Central & North America.
Such an arrangement would facilitate the downsizing of the papacy, and also hinder the prospect of a pope becoming a super-star whose gravitational force attracts more and more power to the Vatican at the expense of national bishops' conferences etc
c.f. the Presidency of the Council of the European Union which rotates every six months
c.f. many articles on "rotating leadership" in Google
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