The Catholic Church is facing multiple challenges to remain relevant today. Catholic faith today has gone through a bit of change from the liberal leadership of Pope John Paul II to the current, more conservative approach of Pope Benedict XVI. As a result, positions that the Catholic Church may have taken in the past have been modified to meet today’s directions. For Catholics, the changes are not outwardly apparent or shocking.
Population Falling
Today’s Catholicism is facing a serious problem of declining numbers. Worldwide, except in third world countries, the number of people attending Church or wanting to join the clergy have been dropping in alarming numbers. This situation is not unique to the Catholic Church; many of the western Christian religions are seeing the same patterns in follower population.
Marketing
To bring people back into the fold, the Catholic Church has been trying new marketing ideas to attract followers to return. These range from community meetings and events to combining school programs with the local church. In some cases, the Catholic Church in developed countries has even become political again, taking positions on various government issues at least in terms of communication. It may be that with the economic recession that has swept the U.S. and Europe since 2008, more people in financial problems have been steered to new faith, looking for comfort or relief, but this is a bit of a guess. Instead, the reality is where people have less money, they also have less to share. As a result, the Catholic Church is seeing a decline in donations from attendants just like any other non-profit as much as it has been experiencing a decline in followers.
Direction
The Church still gets its direction from Rome, but many of the branches coordinate at the national level and direct in detail their own home country churches on a more regular level. In this regard, the Catholic Church experience in Italy may be a bit different than that experienced in Germany as well as the U.S. in terms of doctrine implementation. However, under the conservative approach, eventual changes have been taking place with sermons, ceremonies, wording, as well as policies.
Picture: Painting of Saint Peter by Peter Paul Rubens depicting the saint as Pope—here shown with the pallium and the en:Keys to Heaven, Wikimedia