An obstruction to reform is a Catholic Church with widely divgerent views based in venue. From the Washington Post of 9 Feb 2014:
Quote:
19 percent of Catholics in the European countries and 30 percent in the Latin American countries surveyed agree with church teaching that divorcees who remarry outside the church should not receive Communion, compared with 75 percent in the most Catholic African countries.
30 percent of Catholics in the European countries and 36 percent in the United States agree with the church ban on female priests, compared with 80 percent in Africa and 76 percent in the Philippines, the country with the largest Catholic population in Asia.
40 percent of Catholics in the United States oppose gay marriage, compared with 99 percent in Africa.
The poll, which was done ... for Univision, ... focused on 12 countries across the continents with some of the world’s largest Catholic populations. The countries are home to more than six of 10 Catholics globally.
“This is a balancing act. They have to hold together two increasingly divergent constituencies. The church has lost its ability to dictate what people do,” said Ronald Inglehart, founding president of the World Values Survey, an ongoing global research project.
“Right now, the less-developed world is staying true to the old world values, but it’s gradually eroding even there. [Pope Francis] doesn’t want to lose the legitimacy of the more educated people,” he added.
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An example of 'values' is that pedophiles are gay. Pedophiles are mostly hetro-sexual males. Eventually, education will replace emotional beliefs. An example of reform and changes taking so long as to put stress on church integrity, credibility, and relevance.
Quote:
“If you accommodate contraception, does that mean you’d allow abortion? How do you distinguish which aspects of teaching go together? Bioethics is a new frontier that forces moral thinkers and ethicists to constantly ask: What is humanity?” ...
So what is Pope Francis’s plan, if he has one?
Critics say his solicitation of opinions wrongly gives the appearance that Catholicism is a democracy. Others — including the authors of this poll — say there’s no evidence that he would touch doctrine and is seeking a deeper understanding of why so many Catholics reject church teachings so as to better market them.
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Research avoids a fundamental and underlying concept. Religion is a relationship only between one and his god. A church and its more traditional followers apparently are not ready to address, protects, or want to ignore what creates so many divergent opinions and resulting hate.
Fear of change is apparently strongest in venues with lower education levels and where female circumcision is tolerated. Opinions may be widening and hardening. Maybe.
A Church that even denied and protected pedophilia; can it really address these larger problems apparently entrenched by venue?