The Catholic Church lacks modernity.

(AP Photo/ Andrew Medichini)

The nation is buzzing in preparation for Pope Benedict’s arrival. Amid the excitement surrounding his visit to the United States, excessive media coverage will bolster the image of an antiquated institution in need of an extreme makeover. Perhaps, his visit will provide a global dose of reality TV featuring a church that refuses to accept its own reality.

Karl Ratzinger represents a school of thought that continues to isolate Catholics who question their faith. As expected, he opposes women priests and married clergy. Pope Benedict wrote the Vatican’s statement against gay marriage and publicly condemned Buddhism, Hinduism, and other Eastern religions as offering “false hope” through “auto-erotic spirituality.” The leading theological scholar in the Vatican and the second in power to JP2, Ratzinger was known as the “cardinal enforcer” by clerics who worked with him on a daily basis. Such a stance might help the Church recover financially from the 2002 American sex-abuse settlements, but how can this man bridge the generational and global divide?

Approximately half of all Catholics live in the Americas with the fastest growing population of the faithful in Africa. China has approximately eight million Catholics who are forced to practice in secrecy, yet no leader in the Church has openly addressed their plight. How can these areas of the world relate to an aging church with consistently conservative viewpoints? People of all faiths questioned who would succeed JP2, suggesting that a cardinal from outside Europe would have electrified the Catholic membership. Indeed, a German was chosen who was associated with the Nazis, even if perfunctorily, during World War II.

Benedict XVI has also stated his opposition to religious pluralism within the Christian Church. Ironically, these global Christian movements are precisely the ones that have attracted younger Christians – a task at which the Orthodox Church has largely failed. If Catholics hope to reach young congregants, a Latin mass during the Stations of the Cross will not attract this audience. Perhaps clapping in church could be a first step. After all, these new progressive churches allow people to celebrate during the service, to express emotions in public. Kevin Bacon anyone?

Generation Y is looking for validation and the new pluralistic churches are serving as successful outlets for frustration. Cardinals take note: nowhere in the Vatican can youthful influence and modernity be seen. Instead, younger generation are treated to a group of aging men speaking in ancient language while performing opaque rituals. If the Vatican is to exert a profound influence in a new millenium, it must think about a sense of universality that can outlast the reign of one of the oldest popes ever chosen. Ceremonies led exclusively by male cardinals, bishops, priests, and Vatican officials do not convey images of equal opportunity. A few conveniently placed nuns don’t count.

This month’s papal visit only echoes the sentiments that many people associate with the Catholic Church as a whole: an authoritarian approach to obeying the rules that drowns out all legitimate reasoning. The Church clings to traditional forms of belief and worship in a world that is anything but traditional, and such rigidity will be its downfall in years to come.