Question for our resident papist:

1. What is the future of the Catholic church, in your opinion? Do you see further acceptance of local traditions a la Vatican II, or do you think that it will eventually have to end?

2. At what point will the American Catholics be forced to choose a path of orthodoxy? It seems to me that there are significant gaps between continental Catholicism (or Catholicism anywhere outside the U.S.) and the U.S. equivalent.

3. You guys have the edge: best religious music, finest religious edifices, best hats. Is that edge slipping? Which religion do you see as occupying a cultural predominance?

4. I’ve thought to myself at times that if I weren’t Mormon, I’d be drawn to Catholicism. What about you — if you were to look elsewhere, what faiths appeal to you? Why?

5. You use the language of American protestantism pretty well (“My own redemption depends on Christ’s constantly being able to work amid my petty sinfulness and to transform my heart” — sounds like G.W.B.!). What about the language of Catholicism? Does it belong anywhere in your life? Where do you fit in beliefs about Mary, the lives of the Saints, the ordinances and rituals?

You have done something that Mormons cannot countenance:

Admitting institutional error and asking for forgiveness (and, in your mind, getting it).

Many Mormons, who also have an authority claim, accept that their church is imperfect, but could not cope with something as awful as, say, the Inquisition. They would either deny it, or leave the church in anguish. (This, by the way, is why the Mountain Meadows Massacre remains so sensitive: if Brigham Young ordered the killing–and I’m not saying he did, but many do–then this would be really problematic.)

Anyway, how representative our your views on this matter?

Like Steve, I am interested in the American vs. non-American debate. There have been articles all around, including the Atlantic Monthly that delineate a disparity of schismatic proportions. As far as I am concerned, Roman Catholicism is the world wide Christian Faith and am quite interested in this dynamic as it will have effects for all faiths.

That said, I truly wonder (all ecumenism aside), whether the Roman Catholic Church would ever stop making claims of exclusivity. I hope not. They would lose too much. I think one can state in good faith that God loves his children and that he works through different cultures to bless His children, and still say that the holy sacraments are required for salvation. Maybe that is because I am Mormon and state the Mormon variation of that.

I find this to be an interesting statement. I makes you look at the recent “gestures” from our own prophet in a little different light.

Re: your comment, “If the sins of some clergy, no matter how egregious, shut out Christ’s saving work, then what hope is there for me, who am nothing, if not a sinner?”

This echoes my own experience of Christ’s atonement healing my soul. As I posted elsewhere*, even cases in which the Church, leaders, members, or anyone else may be late or err don’t concern me anymore because they do not affect the healing I enjoy and that others can have. I’ve learned that God’s love truly is the most joyous to the soul and that lesser issues don’t take it from me.

* http://www.timesandseasons.org/index.php?p=2582#comment-97137