Church implosion right on schedule
This is a very interesting article. However, as the title alone might lead to some confusion, here is a snippet that highlights what is meant by the article's title. To wit:
...Francis seems to be deliberately hastening its inevitable collapse by implementing the principles and methods outlined in Evangelii gaudium (EG), his vision and blueprint for Church renewal and reform.
Let's be clear, we're not talking about the demise of the Catholic Church.
God is not dead and the Holy Spirit will never leave Christ's faithful people. This we all believe.
No, it's about the crumbling of the present governing and organizational structure, which continues to mirror certain features of the Roman Empire more than it reflects the organizational model of ecclesial life that is found in the New Testament or was experienced in the first couple of centuries of the Christian Church.
Francis is effectively laying the foundation for the deconstruction of the current model by patiently planting the seeds for the Church's structural conversion by baptizing and employing four, key sociological principles (EG 222-237):
- Time is greater than space
- Unity prevails over conflict
- Realities are more important than ideas
- The whole is greater than the parts
Ultimately the pope's goal is to make the structures and mentality of the Church more reflective of the Gospel and person of Jesus Christ and to liberate it from a codified system of rules and philosophical ideas still deeply wedded to the culture of the ancient Greco-Roman world...