Whilst the priorities of certain tasks will undoubtedly vary throughout the time Pope Francis resides in the Vatican, as Catholics what would you most like to see Pope Francis do? This could be anything from I’d like to see him engage with this issue to, I’d like to see him try out some dance moves in St. Peter’s square.
As an Anglican I’d like to see Pope Francis engage more with different branches of Christianity and consider the varied views on a number of subjects the Catholic church, in my opinion, has been sometimes quite stubborn about.
The Church has, at times, been a bit stubborn. The Roman rite has exhibited this, for example, in the denigration that went on about the Eastern rite churches; John Paul was able to turn that around.
There are, however, areas in which the Church is not going to budge; for example, gay marriage, contraception, and women’s ordination. The problem is that others see the Church as stubborn. The Church sees the issues as matters of truth (and Truth, if you will - meaning that they are not rules we have made up, but rather issues from God). The greatest difficulty is that most people who are pusing thises issues do so from a point of truth, and Truth, being relative. Truth, which is identified as with God and coming from God, is not relative; it is, like God, absolute. Relativism is not something which happened in the last 50 years or so, but it is young in that it traces back to beginnings in the Enlightenment.
The issue of ordaining women, for example, was put thoroughly to rest by John Paul 2; however, in circles which identify themsleves loosely as Catholic, it lingers on. They, however, seem to have no knowledge of how the Church resolves some issues; once something is defined as a doctrinal matter, that ends the discussion. They continue to try to discuss it, to no avail. This is not to ascribe evil intent with them, but it is a matter that either they do not understand doctrinal matters, or they have some idea that what is defined as truth really isn’t true.