On Mondays, I answer questions frequently asked by those considering a return to the Catholic Church. How do I know this stuff? I was away for more than 30 years myself, and am the co-author of When They Come Home: Ways to Welcome Returning Catholics, a book for pastors and parish leaders interested in this ministry.
Why is the Church so ancient, traditional, and rigid?
The Church is ancient. It’s been around for two thousand years, after all. And it is traditional; we are built on Apostolic Tradition, 
the way in which teaching has been passed down, generation to generation, from the apostles to today’s Church leaders and to us.
Rigid? Sometimes. That rigidity is founded on Apostolic Tradition and scripture, which in turn are founded in God, his commandments, his love for us and his very real desire that we conduct ourselves in a way that is pleasing to him and good for us. On the other hand, this Church can at times be almost maddeningly nuanced in its mercy toward the flawed world.
It’s a given that any institution this old and this large (1.2 billion people) is slow to change. But it does change. We’ve apologized about Galileo, persecutions, crusades, and other violence. We’ve stopped talking about unbaptized babies being held in a place called limbo. We’ve gone to local language for Mass celebration, except in those cases where Latin may still be used. Altar servers can now be male or female. But things change only after much study and consideration. And, despite human impatience and a desire for instant gratification, that’s a good thing. Thoughtful change is what God desires. Consider the preparation we as people undergo for baptism (or that our sponsors do if we are infants), confession, communion, confirmation, marriage, ordination, and, when possible, death. Why would he desire anything different for other aspects of this Church?
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