Pope Francis: The People’s Pope
I thought that’s something which were going to impact over the next few months, people are going to think about it a little bit more, because one of the difficulties and criticisms of the Catholic church in particular is that they leave their leadership, bishops, etc., cardinals, popes, in position too long. And in fact, many of them come to their jobs too old.
So, I think, you know, maybe in 10 or 20 or 40, 50 years’ time, we may be looking at something going in the American model where somebody is elected at a certain age for a term, maybe once renewable. So, that could be interesting. I have no idea. I’m only speculating, but maybe we’ll go to the American presidential idea.
And then, the other thing is maybe we won’t just have cardinals making the election, but we’ll have representative people from all over the world and nationalities. It’ll be a headache to do that, but, well, I was going to say maybe it’ll be better, but the cardinals drew the right choice this time as far as I can see.
Christopher Buck: I believe that also. When you speak about a general election and the like, is there a changing view towards the role of women in the Catholic Church?
Father Collins: Well, now, that’s a very, very interesting point and a good question. To be honest with you, I’d like to say yes, but in truth, I have to say no, because while there’s a lot of talk about this is what must be done, etc., I don’t see much movement.
And I think this is something that really needs to be taken either by Pope Francis or the next Pope and really brought forward, the whole role of women in the church, which I don’t mean to be facetious, but women are 50 percent or so of the human population. And certainly, within the administrative structures of the church, they are not up at the top. They’re very much either at the bottom or absolutely in the middle. I think that’s something which is hugely important and needs to be addressed urgently.
