Joe sez: Catholics never have been very good at obeying central authority

Fionn sez: Joe, are you serious? LOL. Seems like you see just what you want to see, nothing more, nothing less.

Well, Peter, at one time, we had three popes - and there were many occasions when we had two (with saints in opposition, supporting one pope or the other). And regional patriarchs have often vied with the Patriarch of rome for supremacy, and national churches within the Catholic church have often had a lot of sway. In addition to that, Canon Law has always given local bishops more autonomy than most people understand (even pastors of local parishes are quite autonomous) - although Rome has not always honored that autonomy. The "cult of the Pope" as a supreme authority is a relatively new development, and it has never been universally accepted. In my lifetime as a Catholic, the Pope has had little effect on the day-to-day life of a parish. In previous ages, the lack of instantaneous communication has ensured that the Pope could never exert worldwide control over anything.

From the outside, the Catholic Church appears to be monolithic, but there have always been many cracks in the Rock of Rome that outsiders cannot see or understand.

Shambles sez: The point is that whatever problems they may have with the organisation - would it be a fair generalisation (if there is such a thing) to say that they do tend to remain in it?

That's exactly the point - people do tend to stay in a church despite their disagreement with central authority because they see it as their church. I've often been heard to say that the Catholic Church is as much mine, as it is the Pope's. If that's the case, why should I leave it? If Catholics disagree with upper management, they do what they can to make management change its mind - or they deftly ignore management altogether, or they learn to accept diversity of opinion. Some evangelical Protestant groups tend to be more rigid in their thinking, and so they tend to split into opposing churches when there is disagreement.

That brings us back to my earlier point - obedience to authority is not necessarily a primary aspect of membership in a church. A church is a community of believers who are joined together and stay together because of a shared and valued experience of faith, tradition, and culture. Certainly, churches has authority structures (and obviously, the Catholic Church has a very strong authority structure) - but authority structures are rarely the defining aspect of an organization. Organizations are primarily the people within them, and who those people are and what they do - the authority structure is merely a framework. Management may see that framework as all-important, but it rarely is.

-Joe Offer-