WITH Pope Benedict gone the hope of some people is that his successor will be more 'liberal'. It is hoped he will permit married priests and women priests. It is hoped he will permit intercommunion with Protestant denominations.
In fact the Pope, no matter who he is, will do none of these things unilaterally.
He would instead act in concert with the bishops, and even then would and could only go as far as permitting say, married priests or intercommunion.
Neither he nor the bishops have the authority to introduce the other desired reforms.
But this doesn't mean that the pressure on the church to conform to modern, liberal secular norms will abate. On the contrary, it is certain to intensify and increasingly the church, and Christians generally, will find the law being used against them to make them conform.
In Scotland, Catholic midwives in public hospitals have been told they must help prepare women for abortions regardless of their own beliefs.
In Ireland, pharmacists have to sell the morning-after pill despite its abortifacient effects.
In England, Catholic adoption agencies have been forced to close because they do not agree with adoption by same-sex couples. Liberal societies take the view that no one should be allowed to impose their morality on anyone else but then turn around and do precisely this to people who don't go along with their norms. Once we have it into our heads that something is a 'right' then we rule that everyone is obliged to give people those 'rights'.
Therefore those nurses in Scotland should think themselves lucky that they aren't obliged to help perform the abortions as well. Thus pharmacists are obliged to be 'pro-choice' and dispense the morning-after-pill to whoever wants it even though it could easily be got from a pharmacist down the road. Catholic adoption agencies must go along with same-sex adoption no matter what their own view on the matter may be, or else close down.
This is what Pope Benedict called the 'dictatorship of relativism'. It simply won't tolerate anyone which doesn't go along with it. Another term for this is 'illiberal liberalism'.
Another one is 'intolerant tolerance'. All dominant opinions become like this. They become aggressive and they use a combination of social pressure and the law to make everyone toe the line or else stay quiet. Of course, liberalism wasn't supposed to be like this. Liberalism is meant to be pluralistic and to make space for all points of view.
But that is emphatically not how it is working out in practice. The single biggest institution resisting the pressure to conform to modern, liberal, secular norms is the Catholic Church. It won't accept that morality is a matter of opinion. It won't accept that there is your truth and my truth.
It doesn't want to see religion relegated to the private sphere. This makes liberal societies intensely uncomfortable. It makes modern people intensely uncomfortable because they feel insulted by the suggestion that their actions in the end must be judged according to objective moral norms.
This is why the Catholic Church is in the firing line so much. People continually feel insulted and offended by its insistence that objective moral norms exist, and that sometimes their choices are simply morally wrong. Therefore, the church must give way.
People want to feel comfortable. They don't want to feel judged even in the most indirect way. They only want their choices to be affirmed. They don't want the church saying it will help them to do the right thing. They want the church to help them to do what they think is the right thing.
That's a big difference. This is why our media champions dissidents within the church, but only a certain type. For example, there are ultra-traditionalist dissidents who reject the Second Vatican Council. It's okay for the Pope to crack down on them, even to excommunicate them as has happened.
BUT it's not okay for the Pope to crack down on liberal dissidents.
They are to be left alone because they are the ones our media hope will one day bring the Church into line with western liberal norms. And on this point, a king-sized irony is lost on us.
In terms of liberal societies the church itself is the dissident we must crack down on. This is happening relentlessly. It must be forced to go along with the norms of liberal secular societies, or else be pushed to the margins of society, 'excommunicated' in effect.
Therefore liberals hope for a Pope who will end the church's dissent, who will bring it into line and make it go along with their values.
If he does not do that, and he won't, he can expect the relentless attacks to continue.