Back to the Future of the Roman Catholic Church

Theological and Ecclesiastical Perspectives on a Religious Institution at the Edge of Its Survival into the Twenty-First Century

Carmen J. Calvanese

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9781625640918
• eBook ISBN:
  9781630877699
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Church

This book explores the notion that the Roman Catholic Church risks imploding from within as a result of its inflexibility towards movements in favor of reasonable change and modernization. Attendance at Sunday Mass has dramatically decreased; the loss of the youth in these churches is a case in point. At the same time, the lack of vocations to the priesthood and religious life is at crisis proportions as is further evidenced by the closing of parishes and the curtailing of religious services including the rising phenomenon of "priest-less Parishes." Young men today--even if they aspire to the priesthood--experience both unrest and rejection at the continued demand of the Church's leadership that priests commit themselves to the lifelong discipline of celibacy. Back to the Future of the Roman Catholic Church addresses the root causes of the various developments that have provoked discontent with Church policies and defections from parish life on the part of those who appear to have lost faith in their hierarchical leaders at the highest levels of Church governance. Finally, this book probes the ways in which the Church can emerge from its crises to become, once again, faithful to its origins as founded by Jesus Christ.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Preface
• Chapter 1: A Church in Crisis
• Chapter 2: Shades of Modernity
• Chapter 3: Church Ministry to the Poor: A Beacon of Hope for the Future Church
• Chapter 4: Obstacles in the Ecumenical Movement
• Chapter 5: The Possible and the Necessary in the Future Church
• Chapter 6: Concluding Remarks
• Bibliography