democracy in the catholic church?: all articles

openDemocracy writers assess the legacy of the Polish pope, Karol Wojtyła, and ask whether the world's most powerful religious institution can be made more democratic.
Monday 16th February

The Vatican’s debacle

The pope's decision over an ultra-right bishop reveals chaos in the Catholic church
Friday 25th April

The pope’s mixed signals

Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the United States was a diplomatic success. But what is he for?
Friday 14th September

Pope Benedict XVI: forward to the past

A year since Regensburg, as the Latin liturgy is restored, Michael Walsh takes the pope 's measure

Tuesday 8th May

Benedict XVI in Brazil: raising the Catholic flag

The shifting religious landscape of Brazil presents a major challenge of policy and empathy to the visiting conservative pope, says Rodrigo de Almeida.
Monday 4th December

The Pope and the Patriarch

Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Turkey was as important for Catholic-Orthodox dialogue as for European-Turkish, says Michael Walsh. But in healing one breach did it open another?
Wednesday 12th April

Poland's past and future pope

One year after the death of Pope John Paul II, Adam Szostkiewicz links Poland’s preparations for the visit of his successor Benedict XVI to concerns over the future of a Catholic media empire.
Thursday 23rd June

Who rules Italy?

The Vatican’s boycott campaign helped turn Italians’ passionate debate over fertility treatment and embryo research into a referendum flop. Sarah Pozzoli assesses the democratic fallout.
Tuesday 19th April

From Joseph Ratzinger to Pope Benedict XVI

The cardinals’ choice of new pope reflects the Catholic church’s crisis of modernity, says Michael Walsh.

Cardinal Chernenko?

Joseph Ratzinger, the new Pope Benedict XVI, could represent the long withdrawing roar of a sclerotic Kremlin-like empire, says Andrew Brown.
Sunday 17th April

The Catholic church is not a democracy

The heartbeat of the Catholic church is in the poor south, and it pulses for fundamental truths not liberal nostrums, says Joanna Bogle.
Wednesday 13th April

Catholics, Iraq, women, and modernity

Pope John Paul II’s failure of political nerve and imagination leaves the Catholic church facing a decisive choice, says Rabbi Arthur Waskow.
Monday 11th April

The Catholic church and democracy: a reply to Neal Ascherson

Pope John Pauls II’s death leaves Catholics worldwide needing to grow spaces of dialogue where appropriate forms of democracy become possible, says Timothy Radcliffe.
Sunday 10th April

The Vatican, the Kremlin and the Feminine

Women are leading the challenge of renewal to the 21st-century Catholic church, says Lavinia Byrne.
Thursday 7th April

The five minutes of Pope John Paul II

As millions gather to witness the Polish pope’s Rome burial, Ariel Dorfman recalls the five minutes in Chile that define his life’s paradox.
Monday 4th April

Cutting the Vatican down to size

Can democratic reform of the Catholic church escape the stifling influence of the Vatican? Michael Walsh of Heythrop College proposes creative ways forward.

Cardinal Arns of Brazil on Pope John Paul II, the Vatican and the poor

The retired archbishop of São Paulo reveals to Laura Greenhalgh the Polish pope’s unexpected sympathy for “liberation theology” and frustrations with his Vatican advisers.
Sunday 3rd April

Through the Vatican white smoke

Pope John Paul II's successor will be chosen by a secretive, top-down process. Austen Ivereigh, press secretary to one of the cardinals involved, calls for reform in the way the church is governed.
Thursday 31st March

Pope John Paul II and democracy

In his long life, the Polish pope, Karol Wojtyła, was at the forefront of the struggle for liberty. But in his twenty-six years at the Vatican, where did this towering figure stand on democracy? The distinguished writer Neal Ascherson dissects an ambiguous legacy.
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