Three Catholic bishops stood at the altar in a small European chapel recently. Invited to preside at Eucharist for the executive committee of Pax Christi International, they led in prayer a diverse circle of lay people and clerics, women and men, from the global South and the global North, from East and West around the world - a circle in which they participate as equals. To that celebration they brought challenges unique to the realities of war, poverty, and injustice that characterize the contexts in which they live and that define the work of the local churches they lead.
Within that small chapel another set of challenges was evident as well: None of the bishops were women - in fact, women in the circle felt less than welcome as prayer after prayer, reading after reading spoke exclusively about "men" and a male God. Beyond that, in most countries from which people in the circle came, the Catholic Church was struggling to retrieve its credibility and find the courage to identify and address the root causes of the sexual abuse scandal. In all of the countries, another challenge not yet owned is that of creating an inclusive and just Eucharistic community.
The Catholic Church in the global South will face challenges in the next five to 10 years that are both exactly the same as and profoundly different from those in the North.
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