My fourth Project from my English classes at Duke University. Luciana Medina

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Luciana Pereira
English Composition I: Achieving Expertise
Professor Denise Comer
Duke University
Project 4: Op-Ed
June 3, 2013
The Catholic Church and its old doctrines
The Catholic Church is one of the most traditional churches in the world. It has 1.2 billion of followers, and enormous financial resources that allows it to make charities the downtrodden. Unfortunately, many sexual scandals by the clerical were denounced in the media and last Pope Benedict XVI asked his resignation, even though reason for this was precarious health. Even after many problems in the last years, Catholic Church leaders still prefer to continue very conservatively to keep old doctrines, but the Church should open its doors for issues of modern times.
To begin, society has changed its way to think and act, bringing new issues that are better solved when we are flexible and have open mind. For example, nowadays many couples of the same sex are being assumed and they claim for equal rights including the marriage, once that what is really important between them is the love and nothing more. In text The Pope`s Muffled Voice by Frank Bruni he says, “More than half of American Catholics support same-sex marriage”. The use of birth control pills is another issue that the Church is completely against because is considered an abortion. But sexuality and gay marriage are subjects that everybody talks about, with the Church into these subjects a better sexual education can be given avoiding unexpected pregnancy, and equal rights between gay couples can be provided.
Second, the Church lost in past three decades a lot of its members for other religions or they simply do not go to the Masses. This is clearly a sign that our society not anymore happy with its rigid

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and unchangeable doctrines of Catholicism. Furthermore, a lot changes are have been asked by Catholics for a long time, as women priests, divorce, premarital sex, use of birth control pills and gay marriage as already mentioned above, but any positive answer comes. In the Editorial “Choose a pope for modern times” by Lima News it says, “The church has been missing opportunities to reach out more progressive Catholics not just in the United States but also Europe and Latin America”. So this way of administration that has nothing similar with democracy, makes Catholics run away and look for something that makes them believe again. The Church does not have to change everything, accepting all the requests mentioned above, but the fact that its leaders do not care about any of these issues is the major problem.
And finally, when the Catholic Church close its doors for a Pope from outside Europe it is also saying that the Church is not prepared to receive a Pope from different continent. Looking for this point we can note a huge contrast between what is said in the Bible and Church really doing. The Proverbs says that every human being is equal, once God made them all, poor or rich. So why its leaders and the Conclave are still hard on giving a chance for Pope from continent that is not Europe? Bruni says, “The Roman Catholic Church is a worldwide organization with enormous financial resources”. “And the pope is C.E.O., ultimately responsible for where money flows…”Maybe all this is in fact a business, and not just religion, which makes its leaders work hard to keep old doctrines.
The Catholic Church`s leaders believe that following the old doctrines is best way to keep the Church`s integrity and they will not change this, even under a lot of pressure. But everything is changing, we are no more conservatives, open mind, we believe that everybody has the right to be treated as equal and we are above all moral. Fortunately good news came in the last few months and at least a Pope from other continent was chosen. Pope Francis is not just another but he represents a new phase for Catholicism, a phase of renovation.

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Works Cited
Lima News. Choose a pope for modern times. Opinion. 12 February 2013. Web
Bruni, Frank. The Pope`s Mufled Voice. The New York Times. Opinion. 18 February 2013. Web