In a word, Ray, it boils down to "survival"!

What the Church has been doing under the last pope, and now this guy, ain't working in "first world" countries (where most of the money and intelligencia are!).

The Church's obvious and inflexible bent toward creating more Roman Catholics to take over the world only seems to lead to poverty and ignorance, and perpetuation of second and third world status in the countries where the Church is dominant. The Church is very seriously losing ground in Western Europe and in the US. It's having a real tough time recruiting young men to the priesthood, and it remains to be seen how the policing of pedophile priests within the Church will work out. That scandal has cost it dearly in money and reputation in the US especially. The probable asassination of John Paul I by elements in the Vatican was no help either.

Nature (Darwin) has it right! Adapt or die!

Dave