We do not pretend to understand it - it is more a stimulation to think

  
In order to be transparent and honest, we declare that our base is the Catholic Doctrine but we find different components and historic traditions in the Catholic Church and churchgoers. We do not have any deep religious education but we have tried without any scientific rigor to identify some "trends", "components" "contexts" and these are listed from A-G. The categorization is quite arbitrary but we have tried to give some explanation of the categories below the table.
  In a naive approach we have asked ourselves several questions, such as;
  
 
  •  - Is there only one Catholic Church? In theory "yes", it is universal church.
  •  - Is Catholic Church exact realization of Jesus' ideas, could had had been different expression/realization of Jesus' idea.
  •  - Has the Catholic Church changed during the last 2000 years?
  •  - What is the status  and source of various church "regulations" and what is then the sin,
  •  - where are the rules thought by the church coming from and what is Jesus' view 
  •  - what is interpretation of Jesus' ideas and by whom.

  
  At the horizontal dimension we have listed some issues which are important for churchgoers or for us as members of society. These are 1-8. Why are the first 3 items at the top; the issues 1-3 are essential for free, creative thinking and ability to execute "free-will".  
     

 

 

    A B C D E F G
    is there theological ground for it tradition as it was in the time of Jesus
 is this tradition approved/ respected by Jesus  historic  church tradition is it important today if the church have to operate everywhere on the earth is important for the western world (universal education, literacy) full adjustment to the modern state laws
"theology" "old tradition" "Jesus' view" "traditional
church"		 "universal church" "modern church" "state-church"
1 hierarchy no yes no yes yes no yes
2 institutional authority no yes no yes yes no yes
3 secrecy of information and church decisions no yes no yes yes no yes?
4 exclusion of women from the leading role (office) in the religion no yes yes (accepted) yes yes no no
5 celibacy by priests no no ? yes yes yes no
6 unbreacability of the marriage yes no yes yes yes yes no
7 inacceptance of the interference with reproductive cycle yes ? yes yes yes yes no
8 sex before the marriage using secure days (using knowledge of the menstruation cycle)
knowledge not available at the time of Jesus		 no no probably yes? no no yes yes
                 

 

     
  The categorization A-G is quite arbitrary but we have tried to give some explanation here below.  
     

 

       
A "theology"
as a ground for interpretation

It is base on the analytical and rational study of the core of the faith in God including doctrine as accepted and "agreed" interpretation of the Gospels,
    
       
B "old tradition"
tradition as it was in the time of Jesus or a  social convention at the time of Jesus
example: women couldn't have a function of religious leader (in Palestine). Part of the social convention was even accepted by Jesus. For example non of Jesus disciples was woman.
    
       
C "Jesus' view"
It would be what is in the credo of the catholic church. It is what we know from the Gospels. It would be based on the fundamental  principle of Christianity with love replacing the law.		 "Jesus' view" versus the "historic church" the "historic church" is imperfect implementation of the Jesus words. It is affected by the human weaknesses an adjusted to the prevailing social structure and power relations.
 
D "historic church"
historic  church tradition, church regulation based partially on the pragmatic reasons. During centuries acting from the center of Vatican the church develop a set of rules. Some of those rules are base on the social relations at that time. The church had to act in a social context in relation with the secular powers, kings an so on.		    
       
E "universal  church"
We refer here to the requirement of the church to act in all countries of the world using the same set of rules. These mean having priests in Italy, England, Brazil, Mali, Uganda, Pakistan, India, Laos, China etc. The gesture, cloth, symbols have to talk to illiterate and people with the Doctor Degree. In some countries some o the status expressions could be disposed of in some not.		    
       
F "modern church"
would be the church (community of believers)  which would keep the doctrine of the theology but put less attention on such aspects as hierarchy, authority etc. It is a church of equality and transparency of functions an merits. It is a church were the emotional and intellectual content counts where rational thinking is the ruled. Where issues are explained in rational way. It is a church which follows Jesus an the church hierarchy is as the same level as churchgoers and the priest provide service. Attachment is to the word of Jesus an not of the priests or hierarchy (which is not necessary)		 Modern church versus "the universal church" At present due to various level of development in the world the Modern church can't be universal hence is still "confined"  to some environments.
       
G "state-church"
It is a church based on principles of the modern western state. The doctrine is adjusted to the principle of the modern democratic state. Elections, gender equality, respect for power of intellect and power of money, theoretical equality of chances and inequality of personal value. Your value is what you achieve or what you own.  The stress is on external manifestation, on form, on ritual and not on the content i.e. actual belief is not so important.		    

 

some comments;

All statement here are within the framework of the catholic thinking. So for example the Gospels have to be rationally and logically interpreted in the context of local social conventions and linguistic usage.

In general the Catholic Church doesn't take the text of the bible literally.So what is the sind is an interprataion. Let us discuss one issue which is much controvertial and de facto not followwed. It is

 

Chartres Cathedral which is an extaorinary construction was build using resources of poor people, some in the riot protest, hundreds of died as result of poverty, hundreds of childeren suffered. How many of them died. Was this worth? Was this way to show a glory/power  of God necessary - is is not better to see the God in the fellow humans,  and cherish communion with Go.