People around the world have been mesmerised by the events surrounding the death of Pope John Paul II and the election of Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, as his successor. Now we wait to see how the new Pope performs in one of the world's most complex and challenging leadership roles. Critically, will he be able to stem the steady decline in the Church's stature, influence and relevance to its faithful that has been evident for at least 30 years?

Pope Benedict recently alluded to perhaps the most important manifestation of this problem when he spoke of the spread of relativism - the tendency of many Catholics, and others, to reject the notion of an enduring truth and to go their own way when they feel the Church is not in touch with their basic needs.