Job Description for the Next Pope

To ensure the vitality of the Catholic Church, the successor to John Paul II must embrace science, reject globalization, reach out to the Islamic world -- and brush up on economics.

BY R. SCOTT APPLEBY | JANUARY 1, 2004

MEMORANDUM:

TO: The College of Cardinals, Roman Catholic Church

FROM: R. Scott Appleby

RE: Selecting the Next Pope

In the 21st century, Your Eminences, the Catholic Church must vigorously address three related and pressing challenges that threaten the vitality and relevance of Christianity.

I refer, first, to a new and aggressive secularization, borne into the heart of modern societies by the dynamics of...

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R. Scott Appleby is professor of history and the John M. Regan Jr. director of the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. He is the co-author of, most recently, Strong Religion: The Rise of Fundamentalisms Around the World (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003).

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 SUBJECTS: RELIGION, ISLAM