On April 25th 2010 I called for the Pope's abdication (http://www.dailykos.com/...). My reasons were many, but one can understand my surprise when Pope Benedict actually did abdicate. I am sure my call had no part in his decision, but his abdication only slightly corrects a terrible condition the Church has fallen into and in no way reduces the threats to its stability and future.
The Church has fought a shameful war against the claims of wrong doing not only by individual priests, but institutional mistreatment of children in places like Ireland (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/...). The Church hierarchy has systematically hidden those responsible, defended them and tried to silence those who have stepped forward with evidence. What is needed now is not just honesty, but a positive program to replace a culture that has not only allowed and protected the abuse of children, but has also created a disregard for the problems of women and apparently has encouraged tax-evasion and money laundering as well as other illegal activities (http://www.spiegel.de/...).
The Church needs a new organizational structure. Its present structure is that borrowed from the Roman Empire: the as emperor, the college of cardinals as Roman Senate, the bishops as provincial governors, etc. It does not need another pope. It needs democracy. Catholics around the world should call for a conclave, a meeting of the faithful in towns and villages to send representatives to Rome to reorder the Church. And this conclave must address the obvious problem of governance at the bottom of which is the problem with men. The Church needs women to be ordained, to be made bishops and cardinals.
There is nothing in scripture that justifies a male hierarchy. If Christ wanted the Church to replace the Roman Empire in organization, then one can see that that empire was transformed into the European democracies of today where women play central roles. As Erasmus and Luther found in their conflicts with Church dogma in the 15th century, the foundations of the Church are made by men and by men (and women) they can be changed and must be for the Church to move into the 21st century. For the complexities of surviving scripture see my article: Caldararo, N., 1994, “Storage conditions and physical treatments relating to the dating of the Dead Sea Scrolls”, Radiocarbon, v. 37, n. 1, pp.21-32.
The early Christian communities were governed by consensus and by the contributions and the participation of both men and women. Now is the time to return to this organization which is the closest to the time of Christ and of the events of that time which give rise to belief in his teachings. For those who argue that men are meant to be the only priests because only men were apostles, this is a figment of the transformation of the Church in the 3rd to 4th century. There has always been a tradition of the Gospel of Mary (see Hans, Jonas, The Gnostic Gospels) and its suppression is one of the great lies of the Church hierarchy.