Papal Monarchy Challenged
Papal Monarchy Challenged

Summary/Abstract: The following article analyzes the power structures within the Catholic Church from a sociological and historical perspective, especially the power of the Curia in relation to the various national bishops' conferences and individual dioceses, but also in relation to the Pope, as it developed above all from the 19th century to have. Unlike the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, it is the Roman Curia, not the College of Bishops, that holds the real power in its hands. The bishops appear before the competent Vatican authorities more as supplicants than as confreres. The Curia is not even well organized internally. There are often no clear boundaries between competencies and no regular cabinet meetings between the heads of authorities. While one has long since learned in the secular area to use systems of separation of powers and mutual control in order to remain capable of learning as an organization, the Roman Church apparently believes that it can do without such „checks and balances”. As the sacred aura of the papacy fades, the institutional character of the church becomes more and more conscious, and in many ways it contradicts generally accepted socio-ethical principles such as the rule of law, subsidiarity, the participation of those concerned and administrative control. It looks as if the largest religious community in the world is ruled by a small group of old men who shirk human responsibility in the name of God and demand unconditional obedience from the bishops, priests and believers of the universal Church for their decisions, regardless of theirs Reasons and their plausibility on site. This increasingly calls into question the credibility of the church’s message itself.

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