Imagine that you are now the pope. What are the top three things that you would change about the Church?

[Beachcomber]

What fun.

1. Excommunicate those who abused children and any who coverd it up.
2. Eliminate the handshake of peace. (I don’t much care why it’s in there, just that it’s distracting and useless).
3. Married clergy.

 

[meandean]

Selling the paintings and treasures of the Vatican will feed the poor for one day (if that, since they don’t really have monetary value), and then the day after tomorrow they will be right back where they started, and there will be nothing available to teach the faith, because all of the teaching materials will be locked up in the vaults of various art museums.

then ease their burden for the day. besides, faith comes by hearing,and hearing by the word of god. that my friend has nothing to do with relics and artifacts.

 

[steve975]

1. Put a tight leash on all Church leaders and all seminaries in terms of their teachings and examples. Severe scrutiny and improvement in all seminaries, beliefs and teachings of all priests and Church leaders. Periodic unannounced and secret visits to all seminaries and parishes to monitor the programs, teachings and styles of Mass celebration. Providing a better forum for all Catholics to report suspected erroneous teachings, corruption, etc within their respective parishes and by their priests. Mandatory periodic re-certification for all the ordained in which they have to pass written exams with detailed questions on topics such as Catholic doctrine, the Catechism, and their own personal beliefs. Of course, once one is ordained they can’t be “un-ordained” through such a re-certification, but those who fail to meet minimum standards would have to go through remediation. Along with this, crack down on and make definitive statements on some of these issues in many parishes such as hand-holding, styles of music, etc.
2. Mandatory and in-depth study, reading and testing for all Catholics on such topics as Catholic doctrine, Church history, the Bible and the Catechism. Periodic mandatory testing on these topics in which failure to meet minimum standards would require remediation.
3. A louder, more aggressive voice for the pope and the Church as a whole. Don’t just sit down and quietly take the constant bashing and misinformation perpetuated by many media outlets. Get out there and loudly respond to all well-publicized wrongful accusations and specifically address and correct every single piece of misinformation spewed. Even many Catholics have terribly misguided ideas about our own Faith and our own Church due in large part to garbage they get from the media that isn’t aggressively addressed by the Vatican. Put an end to this.

 

[Pondero]

On No !

I like the hand shake along with the “Peace Be With You”

It’s called getting to know one another.

I go to church to Mass to pray ,not to get to know my neighbour. I can do that in the church hall.
In our church few shake hands anyway, so it is a waste of time doing it. They just raise their hands in greeting and are glad when it is all over. That is Canada for you.

 

[jmcrae]

I go to church to Mass to pray ,not to get to know my neighbour. I can do that in the church hall.
In our church few shake hands anyway, so it is a waste of time doing it. They just raise their hands in greeting and are glad when it is all over. That is Canada for you.

That’s Ontario for you.

Here in Calgary, everyone hugs and kisses their friends (including people they have just been introduced to, five minutes ago), and shakes hands with people they have not been properly introduced to.

 

[nice2000]

That’s Ontario for you.

Here in Calgary, everyone hugs and kisses their friends (including people they have just been introduced to, five minutes ago), and shakes hands with people they have not been properly introduced to.

Amazing

 

[Mattapoisett64]

(1) Restore meatless Fridays as an obligatory observance all year (except when St. Patrick’s falls on a Friday!). This would restore a bit of “Catholic identity” as well as re-introducing the faithful to the idea of penitential practice.

(2) Permit deacons to administer Sacrament of the Sick when Reconciliation is not involved, so that Father isn’t the only one called out of bed at 2 AM.

(3) Give the moderators at Catholic Answers Forums the authority to excommunicate those who insist on spelling altar as “alter,” those who pluralize words with an apostrophe, and especially, those guilty of the pernicious practice of using the term “girl altar boys.”

(3a) OK, that was probably a bit harsh (except for “girl altar boys.”) For my 3rd suggestion, I’d restore the practice of ordaining Simplex priests (like Ven. Solanus Casey) to ensure that communities aren’t deprived of the Eucharist. These could well be married deacons called to special service.

 

[BostonMyrtleBea]

1. Get rid of “contemporary” Masses with crazy rock instruments and songs like “Jesus is Awesome”
2. Make the Mass more standardized. For example, don’t stand in one church and kneel in another at the same part of the Mass. I can’t tell you how much, in my travels this summer, I was doing the wrong thing according to different locations.
3. Bring back some Latin - at least the Our Father.

Okay, one more… deal with the abuse in the church. No more quietly sending a priest to another parish if caught in a scandal.

 

[BostonMyrtleBea]

(1) Restore meatless Fridays as an obligatory observance all year (except when St. Patrick’s falls on a Friday!).

It used to be EVERY Friday? Whoa! I would not make it. I hate, hate, HATE fish. I dread Fridays in Lent Thank goodness for spaghetti!!!

I agree about St. Partick’s though - definitely a cause for an exception.

 

[jmcrae]

It used to be EVERY Friday? Whoa! I would not make it. I hate, hate, HATE fish. I dread Fridays in Lent Thank goodness for spaghetti!!!

It still is.

You have the option of substituting another act of penance suitable for Friday (such as the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary, or the Litany of the Sacred Heart) instead of abstinence from meat on Fridays outside of Lent in the United States.

I agree about St. Partick’s though - definitely a cause for an exception.

:irish2:

 

[Brendan]

1. Get a new PopeMobile with a V-8 Hemi, some crome headers and maybe some fuzzy dice for the window
2. Install a built in MP3 player with ear buds into the Papal tiara
3. Get together with Cardinal Arinze and really kick butt in the Vatican Euchre tournaments.

 

[Brendan]

what is more important, your little artifacts and paintings, or hurting children with no food,

… There would also be the inconvient fact that the Pope does not own, or have controll over, the vast majority of art.

It was given to a non-profit corp called the “Vatican Museum” with the caveat that it cannot be sold. Kind of like the Smithsonian Museum is not under the control of the President.

The Pope COULD sell St. Peter’s, but then, who exactly would buy it?

Sure, Bill Gates could turn it into his European vacation cottage, or Neihman Marcus could open up a Rome shopping center in the space; but is that really what you are looking to do.

 

[BostonMyrtleBea]

It still is.

You have the option of substituting another act of penance suitable for Friday (such as the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary, or the Litany of the Sacred Heart) instead of abstinence from meat on Fridays outside of Lent in the United States.

Now I feel pretty stupid! I have NEVER heard or that. I’ve only heard that we give up meat on Fridays during LENT. I have gone to Catholic schools most of my life (even through college) and can’t believe that I’ve missed this tidbit of information

I have to say that it is a big struggle for me since I HATE fish. Those who love fish, lobster, clams, shrimp, etc aren’t really having it hard (well - regards to fish eating only). My brother loves fish on Fridays in Lent - it’s like a TREAT. It’s no treat for me, which makes Lent even more humbling, I suppose.

 

[kyria]

Now I feel pretty stupid! I have NEVER heard or that. I’ve only heard that we give up meat on Fridays during LENT. I have gone to Catholic schools most of my life (even through college) and can’t believe that I’ve missed this tidbit of information

I have to say that it is a big struggle for me since I HATE fish. Those who love fish, lobster, clams, shrimp, etc aren’t really having it hard (well - regards to fish eating only). My brother loves fish on Fridays in Lent - it’s like a TREAT. It’s no treat for me, which makes Lent even more humbling, I suppose.

I hate fish too. So one year I had a takeaway vegie burger. Now that was a humbling experience.

 

[Michael_Neal]

not that i’ll ever be, or that i have the arrogance to think i could do a good enough job, but if i had the option:

1. Abolish the CDF and return power back to the Pope and all the Bishops where it belongs, as well as having representitives of the laity in the church so that the whole church could decide on controversial theological matters in the church, thus adding important democratic elements but not democritizing it entirely.
2. Make it so that any catholic man could enter the conclave and not have it traditionally restricted to the Cardinals or those who are seen as “pope material”
3. reintroduce marriage as an option for all members of the church, including the Pope, and encourage responsibility and guidance along with it as well as promoting celibacy
4. reintroduce the women’s deaconate and encourage the roles for women we already have in the church
5. lift some of the restrictions for birth control, but not all (i.e. in the case of aids, stds or the couple cant financially afford to have a child. as i see it NFP when used correctly does aim to prevent pregnancy, and is just as effective if not more so then condoms or the pill. it really doesn’t matter on the method, and yes we should always be open to life, but there are some extreme cases as i have mentioned where i am sure God is compassionate and understands. the law of double effect in moral theology would probably come into play here)
6. reform papal infallibility so that the whole church would have to decide if what the pope feels has been revealed to him by god is authentic and proclaim it, and extend this not to just the pope but the laity and clergy as well. god may reveal to each of us, but it would take the magisterium to help discern if such a revelation is authentic and thus infallible.
7. scrap the scapulars and medals and the mediatrix nonsense which is clearly offensive and blasphemous to our Lord and our mother, return marian doctrine to proper christocentricity and promote mary as mediator (in the same way as the saints or anyone else who prays for another person, stressing the small m and dropping the co as its dangers to ecumenism and borders on blasphemy, and losing the we have to go through mary to reach christ nonsense), evangelist and sacrament (in her we see the deeper reality of the Holy Spirit working within)
8. encourage faith reason science and religion to work together and to encourage theistic evolution in all schools
9. issue an encyclical that would prohibit the denial of sacraments unless the case was most extreme- the person needs that grace, not to be denied it. let god do the work and dont be so quick to judge
10. drop the idea of temporal punishment as it mocks christ’s work on the cross since he took away all punishment, including temporal, due to sin and instead realize that purgatory is man entering into God and that God Himself is purgatory, cleansing man of his sin with the wrath of his grace
11. redifine indulgences as something that the entire church can ask god to give to a person and leave the amount and type up to him. stress that it is only christ’s merits being used, not the merits of mary or the saints which clearly contradicts pauline theology. no steps would have to be taken in order to obtain and whether or not it is granted would be left up to god. grace, whether sacramental or extra sacramental, is a free gift. no strings attached. furthermore it would be understood that it is god who grants the indulgence, not the church.
12. undo everything Benedict has done in regards to the reform of the reform and return things to the way they were with the exception to allow the latin mass to be celebrated but with caution that it does not override the NO. both must be appreciated equally.
13. get Hans Kung to the Vatican and hammer things out until it is determined he can have his licentia back.

I would excommunicate nagoda and everybody like him or her better yet I would return so much traditionalism and strict adherence to Church teaching that people like that could not stand to stay.

 

[Jimsdun]

Now I feel pretty stupid! I have NEVER heard or that. I’ve only heard that we give up meat on Fridays during LENT. I have gone to Catholic schools most of my life (even through college) and can’t believe that I’ve missed this tidbit of information

I have to say that it is a big struggle for me since I HATE fish. Those who love fish, lobster, clams, shrimp, etc aren’t really having it hard (well - regards to fish eating only). My brother loves fish on Fridays in Lent - it’s like a TREAT. It’s no treat for me, which makes Lent even more humbling, I suppose.

Breaded fish is OK. (Thank God for Groton’s) Otherwise, try using spices.

 

[nsper7]

As Pope, I would definitely get rid of the Novus Ordo Mass. There would be two options for people of the Western Rite from then on out:

1. TLM
2. Anglican Use Rite (which I would rename the Anglican Rite)

Also, I would create a Patriarchate, specifically Patriarchate of Britain and elevate the Archbishop of Canterbury to this new role. This would give +Cantuar the authority to ‘smack down’ (good theological term) the theological liberals within the Anglican Communion.

I would allow Anglicans to receive the Eucharist at any Roman Catholic parish and I would allow Anglicans who, even if they do not wish to become Roman Catholic, to become full members of Roman Catholic parishes if there is no available or acceptable Anglican parish for them to join (i.e. say a staunch Anglo-Catholic in an extremely liberal Episcopal diocese).

 

[meandean]

… There would also be the inconvient fact that the Pope does not own, or have controll over, the vast majority of art.

It was given to a non-profit corp called the “Vatican Museum” with the caveat that it cannot be sold. Kind of like the Smithsonian Museum is not under the control of the President.

The Pope COULD sell St. Peter’s, but then, who exactly would buy it?

Sure, Bill Gates could turn it into his European vacation cottage, or Neihman Marcus could open up a Rome shopping center in the space; but is that really what you are looking to do.

you’d be surprized what a yardsale would bring. people were buying parts of the berlin wall like crazy when it came down. god would provide the buyers, but you would have to decide to do with the people, just show them the art pieces and send them on their way? now is that what you really want to do? or love them as commanded?

 

[nsper7]

you’d be surprized what a yardsale would bring. people were buying parts of the berlin wall like crazy when it came down. god would provide the buyers, but you would have to decide to do with the people, just show them the art pieces and send them on their way? now is that what you really want to do? or love them as commanded?

Do you know how ridiculous the idea of just flat out selling artwork and the Vatican sounds? You have yet to show how all this artwork is sinful.

 

[meandean]

Do you know how ridiculous the idea of just flat out selling artwork and the Vatican sounds? You have yet to show how all this artwork is sinful.

i’m the imaginary pope and i want to change 3 things, yet you are having such a hard time with this. does it make you more of a believer with the bells and whistles of life, or are you willing to sell off everything and give to the poor and follow jesus? the art work and things are not sinful, its your tight selfish grip on them that is being exposed as sin.