Is the Catholic Church Becoming Less "catholic"?

The New York Times over the weekend observed: "A theologian resigned to the church's diminished status in a secular world, Pope Benedict has favored a smaller church of more ardent believers over a larger one with looser faith." To most of us, that means he is trying to downsize, become more insular, more fundalmentalist, and less "catholic."

This NYT observation followed Pope Benedict XVI's decision to revoke the excommunications of four bishops involved in the schism of a French archbishop, Marcel Lefebvre, who in 1970 protested against the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. In 1988 Lefebvre "consecrated" four men bishops. Pope John Paul II promptly excommunicated all five of them. In the meantime, Lefebvre passed away, but last week Pope Benedict decided to revoke the excommunications, apparently in an attempt to bring the far-right, fundalmentalists back into the folds of the church.

Although that action in itself raises many questions, the inclusion of Richard Williamson, a British born cleric who recently said he did not believe that 6 million Jews died in the Nazi gas chambers, has infuriated many Catholics, not to mention Jewish groups around the world.

And that brings to mind that in 2006 Pope Benedict offended Muslims around the world by quoting a medieval scholar who called Islam "evil and inhuman."

This papal willingness to offend Jews and Muslims while at the same time encouraging the fundalmentalist, right-wing aspects of the Church will in fact drive away large numbers of mainstream Catholics.

The word "catholic" has always meant--and I quote Webster's Unabridged Dictionary--"universal; general; all inclusive; liberal; not narrow-minded..." Now we have a pope who welcomes the so-called "traditionalists" into the fold although such action excludes the attitudes of the mainstream--the core of the Church who celebrated the Second Vatican Council; a pope who is comfortable insulting Jews by exonerating Richard Williamson; and a pope who in 2006 insulted the Muslim Faith. If he in truth is trying to create a smaller, more insular, fundalmentalist church, he is making the right moves, but he should stop referring to it as the "catholic" church. His church is not "catholic." His church is not "universal; general; all-inclusive; liberal; not-narrow-minded..."

In Boston, Toledo, and in dioceses all across the US, the Catholic hierarchy is closing parish after parish to raise money ( perhaps to offset the lawsuits resulting from the crimes of pedophilic priests). The disinfranchised parishoners who have supported these parishes for years are questioning how "catholic" the church of Pope Benedict really is. Such down-sizing is not in the tradition of the Catholic Church or in the spirit of true "catholicism."