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In recent centuries the church has apportioned a substantial part of its energies to battles against external enemies--skepticism, nihilism, secularism and atheism. Today Rome finds itself under a strong challenge from some who & profess to be loyally Catholic. Latin America, a region that the Pope is visiting for the sixth time, grapples with such problems as poverty, unemployment, crowded housing and political turbulence. The church hierarchy is divided over the growing influence on the area's 338 million Catholics of a radical movement, partly influenced by Marxism, that is known as liberation theology. In the U.S., the papacy confronts restiveness and even anger among sisters and laywomen who are unhappy about the church's rigid stands on abortion, birth control and an exclusively male priesthood (see following stories). In Europe as well as in the U.S., the Pope and his aides face challenges from theological scholars whose reinterpretations of traditional dogma verge on what Rome considers heresy. In the Third World, notably black Africa, where Catholicism is flourishing, there are large and puzzling problems of what to do about "inculturation," the desire to adapt the church's rituals and procedures to local customs.
Afundamental issue underlies these concerns: the authority of the papacy. In a pre-Christmas address to the Curia (Vatican bureaucracy), John Paul applauded "wholesome pluralism" within the church. But he warned against the dangers of "isolationist" and "centrifugal" forces that threaten the unity of Catholicism. The mission of the Pope and the Holy See, he said, "consists precisely in serving . . . universal unity." The center, in other words, must remain the center: Rome must decide what is Catholic and what is not.
There are, however, dissident church members who believe that in a democratic age Catholics should have the right to decide troublesome issues for themselves. The challenges occur in several crucial and overlapping areas: worship, the claims of national and local autonomy, issues of family life and morality, discipline among priests and nuns, and doctrine.
Although papal authority has emerged as the overriding issue, there are also important debates about church involvement in contemporary social matters. John Paul has led the way, denouncing economic injustice and insisting on the rights of the downtrodden. Taking their lead from the Pontiff, American bishops are issuing strong moral stands on their nation's nuclear arms strategy, the U.S. economic system and the evil of abortion. Bishops in Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Uganda, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and other lands have boldly denounced human rights abuses by their governments. In South Africa, white Archbishop Denis Hurley will go on trial in February because of his public protests against police brutality toward blacks in Namibia.