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In the conservative blog "PJ Media," the author, Stephen Kruiser lambasts the mainstream media (MSM) for unfairly critiquing the election of a new pope. He accuses the MSM of trying to mold the church in its own liberal, Starbucks sipping, view of the world. The church, in his view, is an immutable institution "because the Church isn't whimsical or a slave to the social quirks of a given era." The media has accused the Church of being backwards on issues such as women's rights, including, but not limited to, abortion. They have also been seen as being averse to homosexuals and gay marriage. Kruiser sees no reason for the Church to yield to the pressure being put on it by the MSM as he sees it.
Kruiser is right in the sense that it seems implausible that the Church would change its stance on an issue it has held for 2000 years. But it's not just the media that's questioned the Roman Catholic Church. Church attendance across Europe and the United States has fallen steadily over the past 15 years. Gay marriage is garnering greater acceptance as well as contraception. Many religious values are giving way to secular ones. This is not just a trend in the media, but the developed world's society as well. So, given this phenomenon, why shouldn't the media ask these questions about the Church? The Church seems to be fighting a losing battle on polemic social issues, and the only way I see the Church surviving in the long term future is to ask itself this question: Can the Church continue to be relevant in a growing secular society when it embraces ideas that more and more people are rapidly rejecting?
I should not discount the changes on some limited levels that the Catholic Church, or at least some individual people at high positions, have undergone. Pope Francis does respect homosexuals as people, however, he does not go as far as to fully accept the concept of gay marriage. The Catholic Church is usually the last hold out to what society in general has accepted, whether it's the growing faith in science, prevalence of contraception, or anything.
Declining attendance, in my view, cannot be remedied. Science has provided us with irrevocable truths about the world that for thousands of years of human history have remained a mystery, explained by different supernatural myths. With science having taken off over the last couple hundred years or so, the need for the church has expectedly gone down. Humans have only known the structure of DNA, the essential building blocks of all living things, for about 60 years. Science does not know everything, but it has explained much more in a relatively short period of time than religion ever has. The best chance for church survival is to radically change its stance on virtually every social issue and hope it still attracts followers.
The MSM is not at fault for bringing up thoughtful questions. In fact, I think the only way for the Church to survive is to ask them amongst themselves. The Church has adapted before, however. Prior to the Copernican model of the solar system came to be broadly accepted, the Church excommunicated and condemned as heretics the proponents of such a model. They have since de-excommunicated Galileo and others who went against Church doctrine. The Church is in conflict with secular society, ignoring the conflict would be a sort of dereliction of duty by the media.
