The Coming Catholic Church: How the Faithful Are Shaping a New American Catholicism

The hopeful yet realist book that Catholics are hungry for: Lay people across the political spectrum, good and courageous nuns and priests (none of whom want to leave the Church) are leading the way toward a radical reformation that will open the way to married priests, more leadership roles for women, increases authority on the part of lay people, increased democratization, and decentralization, and less hierarchical and secret decision-making. This is an optimistic but clear-eyed assessment of where the Church needs to go from here, presenting both the challenges and opportunities of the current crisis. The lid has been blown off the dysfunctional clerical culture of the Church, and a new Reformation has begun that cannot be stopped, as people realize how little much of the Vatican hierarchy, clericalism, and dogmatism of the Roman Catholic Church have to do with the teaching of Jesus and the essence of Christianity.