A people adrift : the crisis of the Roman Catholic Church in America / Peter Steinfels.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Steinfels, Peter.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Catholic Church--United States.

Catholic Church.

United States.

Physical Description:

xxi, 392 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Simon & Schuster, [2003]

Summary:

In A People Adrift, a prominent Catholic thinker states bluntly that the Catholic Church in the United States must transform itself or suffer irreversible decline. Peter Steinfels shows how even before the recent revelations about sexual abuse by priests, the explosive combination of generational change and the thinning ranks of priests and nuns was creating a grave crisis of leadership and identity. This groundbreaking book offers an analysis not just of the church's immediate troubles but of less visible, more powerful forces working below the surface of an institution that provides a spiritual identity for 65 million Americans and spans the nation with its parishes, schools, colleges and universities, hospitals, clinics, and social service agencies. In A People Adrift, Steinfels warns that entrenched liberals and conservatives are trapped in a "theological gridlock" that often ignores what in fact goes on in families, parishes, classrooms, voting booths, and Catholic organizations of all types. Above all, he insists, the altered Catholic landscape demands a new agenda for leadership, from the selection of bishops and the rethinking of the priesthood to the thorough preparation and genuine incorporation of a lay leadership that is already taking over key responsibilities in Catholic institutions. Catholicism exerts an enormous cultural and political presence in American life. No one interested in the nation's moral, intellectual, and political future can be indifferent to the fate of what has been one of the world's most vigorous churches -- a church now severely challenged.

Contents:

1. The Battle for Common Ground 17

2. The Scandal 40

3. The Church and Society 68

4. Catholic Institutions and Catholic Identity 103

5. Around the Altar 165

6. Passing on the Faith 203

7. Sex and the Female Church 253

8. At the Helm 307

Conclusion: Finding a Future 352.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 361-377) and index.

ISBN:

0684836637

OCLC:

52410284