text: This article skirts around one of the most frustrating aspects of being a Catholic in the 21st century: the agonizingly slow pace of change. We live in an age where change is continual and information is exchanged in the blink of an eye. But where the Catholic Church is concerned, you'd think we were still living in the dark ages, when the pace of change could be measured in centuries rather than in nano-seconds. 
  
  So on the one hand there's this statement from the pope: “We must trust the Spirit, trust this journey and most of all trust ourselves." contrasted with this one meant to put on the brakes: "and he rejected both 'an immoderate desire for total change without sufficient reflection or grounding.'" Sounds nice enough, but in truth he said that merely to placate conservatives who resist any change for any reason. 
  
  The pope is clearly trying to move the needle forward, but in this church that's easier said than done. It's always one step forward, two back - or vice-versa.