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The Vatican in the new millennium

Bringing Rome Back Home

Part II: April 11, 2005

The biggest religion story of the year is unfolding 24/7 - only it is thousands of miles away from North American newsrooms. Many religion writers are in Rome elbowing their way through the media circus, while others are manning the desk back home, looking for ways to localize a story that will go on for weeks, but often with precious few local angles beyond the usual reaction pieces. Here are some ideas to get the creative juices flowing. ReligionLink will update them as events change.

AUTHORITY VERSUS POWER

The papacy is the ultimate symbol of religious authority, and the Catholic Church often comes across as an authoritarian institution. Many Americans are confused by, or at odds with, authority - especially when it comes to issues of religion and conscience. Indeed, the issue of religious authority is not just a Catholic matter. In every church, from Episcopalians to Methodists to Lutherans and beyond, Americans are witnessing often bitter and divisive debates over how authority is exercised. This is a "think piece," but one that will affect many readers, inside and outside the Catholic world. What is the right relationship between the center and the periphery in a church? What is the relationship between the individual and the community? Between justice and compromise? How does one hold or resolve internal tension or skepticism over church authority and still enjoy one's faith? This story can go in many directions, but a good starting point is Richard R. Gaillardetz, author of By What Authority? A Primer on Scripture, the Magisterium, and the Sense of the Faithful (Liturgical Press, 2003). Gaillardetz distinguishes between "authority" and "power" in this March 2005 interview, "Who's the Boss?" in U.S. Catholic magazine.

LATIN LOVERS

Odd as it might seem, the media are alive with ceremonies in a dead language: Latin. In fact, very few of the cardinals gathering in the Sistine Chapel speak what was once their lingua franca. But the cardinals may be behind the curve. There are signs of a growing interest in classical languages. Certainly popular culture has spurred interest with movies like Troy and Gladiator. And Latin was half the dialogue in Mel Gibson's Passion. Now the ceremonies and liturgies surrounding the death and election of a pope are putting Latin into the mainstream once again. But is it having any effect? Are classes in the classics attracting students? Or is this the last gasp of a language that is dying once again? See a Dec. 18, 2003, Economist story, "Latin Today: Roman Rebound," and a March 23, 2004, USA Today column by Craig Wilson, "Latin revival shows everything very old is new again."

THAT REALLY OLD-TIME RELIGION

The "It Girl" of congregational trends is the Emergent Church - the pulsating worship services that marry pop culture and high technology into Christian religion for Generations X, Y and Z, and beyond. It's emotion and entertainment and it's really cool. But the flip side of that phenomenon is more akin to the religious tradition currently getting splashed across today's front pages - the ancient ways of "smells and bells," the incense and recitations that recall monasticism more than MTV. And this has great appeal, too, church experts say. Look at the popularity of labyrinths, centering prayer and Gregorian chant CDs. Books on the Divine Office (the regular daily prayer of monastics) are flourishing, and people looking for a break from the stresses of daily life are turning retreat houses into a new business for the dwindling number of monks and nuns who live in them. Fasting is in, and not just to get washboard abs. Hildegard von Bingen (who?) is hot. What is the attraction of this so-called "neo-medievalism"? Are people retreating into the past or integrating something old into postmodernism? The story ideas of this "alternative spirituality" - "Old Age" rather than "New Age" - are endless.

IT'S NOT JUST SEX

So much of the commentary about John Paul focuses on his stern teachings on sexual morality, and against birth control, abortion and gay marriage. He is consistently tagged as a conservative, and questions center on whether his successor will loosen up on these issues. Few believe he will. What will also remain the same, in all likelihood, are positions embodied in John Paul's powerful statements on social and economic justice. In speeches and three of his 14 encyclicals, the pope spoke with great force - and criticism as strong as that on communism or against sexual freedom - about economic injustice and rampant capitalism and materialism. In that context, he would have been a raging liberal in American politics. Those statements made him a hero in the developing world. Why do those statements often get short shrift in the U.S. media and culture, and among Catholics themselves? Is the assimilation of this immigrant faith affecting Catholic receptivity to this countercultural message of social justice - what has been called the Catholic Church's "best-kept secret"? How will it play out among U.S. Catholics if an African or Latin America pope emerges and really hammers at these "liberal" issues? What will be the political ramifications?