The Catholic Church will never be something positive, but through reform, it can change into something less harmful to society.
In the 60s and 70s, there were strong reformist sentiments in the church, today there are strong anti-reformist sentiments .
The root of the problem, however, is that laypeople, priests, and bishops simply do not want the reform and do not wish for it. There is an extremely strong desire for conservatism, religious bigotry, and backwardness; no one wants any change, the Catholic Church and Catholics want everything to remain as it was.In the 60s and 70s, there was a huge desire for reform in the church. The Second Vatican Council was convened, which brought about huge positive changes such as tolerance for non-Catholic churches and tolerance for non-Christian religions. In the 60s and 70s, there were very positive astrological and energetic influences on our planet that brought about these positive changes. Currently, the energies and energetic influences on planet Earth are not as positive as they were in the 60s to 80s.
An example of anti-reform sentiments on contraception
According to the information provided , many believers allegedly left the Catholic Church when the Pope issued the encyclical Humanae Vitae in 1978, which allowed at least one method of contraception, the method of monitoring the menstrual cycle, although even that was not allowed before. Believers and priests then rebelled against it, because they expected as a matter of course that the Church would also allow artificial forms of contraception. Today, however, the situation is different, today there is a huge decline in the Church, lay people, priests, bishops not only do not protest against the absurd teaching of the Catholic Church, but even aggressively fight for it and consider it the most important part of the Christian faith.When I spoke with a certain priest about what he thinks of his own parish, what bothered him most about the faithful was that not all of them are religious fanatics who accept the church's teaching on so-called premarital sex and contraception. Not only do most Catholic priests share this view, but so do actively practicing believers. A non-religious person will never understand the mentality of Catholics – these people live in a completely different world of thought – for them, the church's teaching on sexuality, which is extremely controversial, is a fundamental pillar of faith – it is something completely self-evident to them, something that is not discussed. According to the official teaching of the Catholic Church, sexuality should serve exclusively for reproduction. I know many strongly practicing Catholics, but not one of them has ever questioned, nor would it ever occur to them to question, whether this church teaching is somehow strange. And they themselves, without question, are willing to adhere to this teaching and humbly and humiliatingly confess any violation of the rules to the priest. And they are even willing to aggressively fight for this teaching. How low a person must sink when they wallow in such intellectual and energetic shit. I personally see no difference between Jehovah's Witnesses and Catholics – both groups are equally sick in the head.
Pope Francis is a man who would like to abolish the ban on contraception , but he did not find understanding among priests, bishops, and the faithful. The Pope publicly called on priests not to put too much pressure on the faithful regarding contraception, and also not to be strict with the faithful during confession – of course, they did not take the Pope seriously in this matter. Furthermore, in a public statement on the ban on contraception, he expressed himself very critically. Also, at the Synod on the Family, where there were not only priests but also many laypeople, the topic of contraception was reopened, but even there, the members of the synod did not approve of the Pope's opinion on contraception – they wanted everything to remain as it was.
The Catholic Church has locked itself in the Middle Ages and does not want to get out.
For many conservative Catholics or bishops, Pope Francis is too liberal, and I am afraid that after the end of Francis' pontificate, the cardinals will be very careful to elect some crazy ultra-conservative fanatic as Pope, who will lead the Catholic Church into an even darker Middle Ages than before.
Interesting related links:
Pope Francis and ContraceptionWhere does Pope Francis really stand on contraception?
http://voiceofthefamily.com/where-does-pope-francis-really-stand-on-contraception/
Pope Francis' Remarks About Birth Control 'Methods' Offend Pro-Choice Catholics http://www.catholicsforchoice.org/pope-francis-remarks-about-birth-control-methods-offend-pro-choice-catholics
Good Catholics don't have to be like rabbits, Pope Francis said https://hnonline.sk/svet/508993-dobri-katolici-nemusia-byt-ako-kraliky-odkazal-papez-frantisek
Pope Says Church Is 'Obsessed' With Gays, Abortion and Birth Control https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/20/world/europe/pope-bluntly-faults-churchs-focus-on-gays-and-abortion.html
Pope Francis on Abortion and Other Issues https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/09/21/us/pope-francis-issues-catholics.html
In the Catholic Church, it is strictly forbidden to even discuss a possible reform.
Catholic priests operate on fear. Every Catholic priest is obliged to preach exclusively the official teaching of the Catholic Church in public sermons. If he were to say something else, he would commit heresy and could face very serious trouble. A certain Catholic priest told me that he is even afraid of misspeaking, that he has to be careful with every single word so that he is not accused of heresy.Despite the Catholic Church declaring its own infallibility, there are dozens of examples in history where the Church's teachings have changed, and bishops, priests, and believers should be aware of this – what was considered heresy in the past is now considered official teaching. This applies, for example, to the Second Vatican Council, or in the past, the Church did not recognize democracy, but today it does.
Furthermore, at the Second Vatican Council, the old doctrine of the Church was abolished and replaced by a new one, e.g. in the area of salvation of non-Catholics or the area of tolerance of non-Catholics and cooperation with them.
Anyone who wanted to discuss church reform would be accused of promoting heresy, which in practice means that discussing reform is forbidden. A good example is priest Michal Lajcha, who tried to discuss celibacy in the church, wrote a book about celibacy, but in the book he wrote the heresy that mandatory celibacy could be abolished, and as a result, the bishop suspended him. The Catholic Church would rather tolerate a priest who celebrates mass drunk, or a priest who pedophilically raped a child, than a priest who had the audacity to publicly discuss the topic of celibacy.
It is very sad that bishops, priests and believers are not even tolerant enough to allow even a discussion about the reform of the church, even in such small cosmetic changes as the obligation of celibacy. The Catholic Church has locked itself in the Middle Ages.
A normal non-religious person can never understand the mindset of religiously inclined people. These people live in their own world and their "logic" is completely different from that of an ordinary person. Be very glad and grateful to the universe that you are not a Catholic, because then you would have to descend to the level of the mental crap in which believers wallow.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of active practicing Catholics completely agree with the bishop's decision to punish the priest for wanting to discuss the topic of celibacy. I saw very aggressive, offensive reactions from believers on Michal Lajcha's Facebook page in response to his book.
No papal intervention is needed for it to be possible to discuss reform in the church. Above all, the faithful themselves, priests, and bishops should be aware enough to at least be able to tolerate the discussion, and in the best case, actively support it. No official Vatican decree prevents them from doing so.
Anti-reform sentiments in the Church: the tolerance for other religions from the Second Vatican Council was very quickly forgotten: Nostra aetate
The Council document Nostra Aetate speaks not only of tolerance but also of dialogue with non-Christian religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism. In the Christian environment, the topic of other religions is extremely taboo, a topic that is not discussed. In the Christian intellectual world, other religions simply do not exist. Christians create a very strong protective intellectual mechanism against other philosophies in their world. For example, if the topic of Buddhism or esotericism is mentioned in a Christian environment, it is exclusively in a negative, intolerant context, that it is from Satan. Without studying other philosophies, it is not possible to learn to be tolerant of them.It is understandable that a simple peasant Christian with an apprenticeship education is not interested in other philosophies, but it is really sick that intellectually inclined Christians are unable to study anything about other philosophies. I personally grew up in an intellectual Christian environment, but I never saw literature on other philosophies. They have hundreds to thousands of Christian books at home, but not a single one on other philosophies.
And now, to return to the main topic: it is incredible how Catholics try in every possible way to ignore the conciliar document Nostra aetate. They pretend that this document was never issued and does not exist.
About 30 years ago, Catholic priests could still afford to write books about Buddhism without being persecuted in any way. And there were several of them. An example is "Invitation to Zen Meditation" by the priest Jozef Vrablec. Today the situation is different, the church has returned to the Middle Ages, today for such a book the priest would immediately be fired, similar to Michal Lajcha, who is a suspended priest who dared to write a book about celibacy. The church has returned to its enormous decline.
What could help to reform the church?
– establishing a non-governmental organization that will disseminate information on this website and have at least some media presence-the believers themselves should create an organization that will call on the church to reform, at least in minor cosmetic matters, and at least in hints, they will talk about at least some of the topics on this page
– to build enlightened Christian communities that, instead of fanatizing their members, will de-fanaticize believers, teach tolerance, community leaders will openly educate their members about other religions and philosophical systems, it will be a debate club where topics such as esotericism, Buddhism, and Gnosticism will be openly discussed. (Currently, almost all Christian communities teach people religious fanaticism, i.e., they do the exact opposite)
– Catholic priests themselves should establish educational organizations; in general, priests should visit each other more often and discuss things.
The ideal Christian according to the church vs. Lajcha and Rozek
A perfectly obedient sheep without an opinion, who has no questions and fully believes and recognizes all the teachings of the church, is considered an ideal Christian. An ideal Christian is considered to be a person who is a perfect copy of the official teachings of the church, who does not stand out from the crowd. People who dare to have their own opinion within the church and deviate from the official line, such as Michal Lajcha or Jan Rozek, are hated by priests, bishops, and believers with all their soul as traitors to the faith and false Christians.Blind obedience of priests to the bishop
A certain Catholic priest, when I spoke to him personally, said about Lajcha that the whole affair is a manifestation of his mental disorder. A very insulting, aggressive, and hateful statement about his former colleague from the same diocese. Catholic priests simply live in their own world, and a normal person cannot understand them. The Catholic Church is a sect – it is a very perverse organization – novices – theology students – future priests – seminarians undergo so-called formation in closed priestly seminaries, which translates to very intensive brainwashing, programming, indoctrination, and fanaticism. Part of the seminarians' formation is also fanatical blind obedience to the bishop and his officials. The concept of blind obedience is very well known to Catholic priests. Disobedience to a church superior for a priest means not only fear of suspension and thus losing great financial benefits from the overfunded church, but disobedience to a superior in the church also means enormous blasphemy, sin, and transgression against God, for which one allegedly goes to hell. Priests perceive their bishop as their cult – in the name of fanatical obedience to the bishop, they are able to change their personal opinion to that of their bishop. When the bishop punished Lajcha, in the name of fanatical obedience to the bishop, most priests began to hate Lajcha, because after all, the bishop punished him.It is very sad that most priests have not yet understood that they can have a different opinion on the matter than the bishop, that they do not have to adapt their personal opinion to the bishop's opinion. The Catholic Church is simply a perverted sect. I see no difference between Catholics and Jehovah's Witnesses – both are equally insane. The church is a very dark organization connected to negative demonic forces.