For immediate release: April 19, 2005
Contact: Rea Howarth 301-699-0042
cell: 301-538-4420, cso@quixote.org

With the Election of Ratzinger, Cardinals Are Sailing the Ship Over a Cliff

The Quixote Center is both shocked and saddened that the cardinals did not take the time to carefully reflect on the challenges facing the church today. The election of Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, represents a deeply troubling future for the church, said Rea Howarth, codirector and head of the Center's Catholics Speak Out Program.

"We are all too aware of the role that Cardinal Ratzinger played as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith," said Howarth. Ratzinger's election signals that the cardinals have no intention of addressing the urgent pastoral reforms needed in the church’s governance with regard to justice for church employees, bringing the church into the 21st Century with regard to contraception, or justice for women. "Cardinal Ratzinger’s role as enforcer of a rigid interpretation of doctrine and an extreme interpretation of papal infallibility means that the church will be driven even further to the right."

"With the election of Cardinal Ratzinger, the cardinals have set their compass directly toward widening the chasm between the hierarchy, the laity, and the best and the brightest of the church’s theologians. They are sailing the ship right over the chasm," said Howarth.

Women, especially young women, are leaving the church in record numbers because they understand that the church is a dangerous place for women.

The question of women is at the heart of the survival of the American church. In March 2005, the National Leadership Roundtable of Church Management released a study that concluded there has been a long-term decline in the bishops’ authority in the US church, which was compounded by the sex abuse scandal; a rising demand for lay leadership; an expectation of financial accountability; and serious alienation among post-Vatican II Catholics, especially young women.

The report shows that the laity are open to more deacons and lay ministers, and are most opposed to closing parishes—which are seen already as too large and impersonal—and not having a priest to visit the sick or perform last rites. By more than a two-thirds majority, American Catholics think it is a good idea to make celibacy optional, ordain married men, allow the return of married priests to ministry, and ordain women.

In Latin America, the church is losing members to evangelicals. In most of the developing world, Catholics—especially women—strongly disagree with the hierarchy’s stance on contraception and abortion.

Catholics Speak Out is a program of the Quixote Center that provides resources and opportunities for action on reform in the Roman Catholic Church.