Pope Francis's election was unique in many ways, not least because of his background -- he's the first Latin American pope to lead the church in its history.
Each side in the debate has spoken of a watershed moment in the Church's history, with even a modest shift down the road towards ordaining gay people likely to change its character.
On Monday, Mrs Hood will be called upon to preside over one of the most controversial debates in the church's history.
The future pope entered the priesthood in 1951 and spent the early years of his career navigating one of the most tumultuous periods in the church's history.
Pope Benedict - the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - was elected to lead the Roman Catholic Church in one of the fastest conclaves in history.
The public silence of the Vatican during the widespread atrocities of World War II is arguably the most controversial issue in the Catholic Church's wartime history.
"There were also moments in which the waters were agitated and the wind against us when, as in the entire history of the Church, the Lord seemed asleep, " he added.
The release "concludes a sad and shameful chapter in the history of our Local Church, " the archdiocese said.
His visit to the Cologne synagogue, rebuilt after World War II, will mark only the second time in history that a head of the Catholic Church has entered a Jewish place of worship.
In their declaration, prompted by the pope's pre-millennium call to local churches to ask for pardon for misdeeds committed during the course of the church's history, the French bishops seek to place the church's actions between 1940 and 1945 in a historical context.
"He's got a very strong social-justice position that will be much appreciated by the more progressive forces in the church, " said Virginia Garrard-Burnett, professor of history and religious studies at the University of Texas at Austin.
Up until last week, the church had been shuttered only once in its history, which dates back to America's first European settlers.
He earned a doctorate in church history from The Catholic University of America and sprinkles his speeches with details of the early struggles Catholic immigrants trying to carve a place for themselves in Protestant America.
Cardinal Bergoglio, however, wanted to talk about the elephant in the room: the long-term future of the church and its recent history of failure.
This shows a vivid awareness that prayer may not be enough to deal with the situation facing the Catholic Church at this critical moment in its long history.
But they are quick to testify to the long history of beer making in the church.
WSJ: A Lot of Church Folk Are Asking: 'What Would Jesus Brew?'
The condition of the church, which has suffered extensive earthquake damage in its history, has been of concern.
In the modern history of the Catholic Church, "no other story has drawn such negative coverage over this arc of time, " says Allen.
Even a confident man like the new pope might be forgiven a little nervousness upon assuming control of the world's biggest church during a pivotal time in its history.
Gray is the pastor of the Imani Family Church in Montreal, and he says that he and his parishioners wanted to be part of history.
Yet ever since the triumph of democracy in eastern Europe, the church has often appeared to the secular world to be slipping behind the train of history.
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