The Catholic Revolution
Turmoil and reform in the Catholic Church: A firsthand report

A crisis of confidence and authority has erupted within the Catholic Church, and flash fires are everywhere: many priests are leaving their ministry while others agitate about vows of celibacy; nuns are emerging from the sanctuary of convents; the laity are insisting on a stronger role in parish affairs; underground experimental communities are springing up; and among our youth a massive alienation from institutional Christianity is underway. In short, the Catholic Church is in a state of revolution.

Like all revolutions, this one is full of conflicting ideas and forces. It had its beginning in the Vatican Council of 1962-65. But the continuing surge of the conflict is in the hands of those Catholics who seek to blaze a trail to the Vatican II goal of love and service to the world, and are not content with the ambivalence of bishops who resist implementation of reforms they themselves legislated. For their part, the bishops see their authority being whittled away.

To obtain the facts for this firsthand report on the crisis of Catholicism, Mr. Roche traveled 35,000 miles throughout North America and Europe. He interviewed bishops, Roman curia officials, priests and former priests, sisters and former sisters, laity who believe and disbelieve, college presidents, ecumenical leaders, Negros, Peace Corp volunteers, college students, and editors.

He attended the first Synod of Bishops in Rome and the precedent-shattering World Congress of the Laity, theological conferences, priests' seminars, underground Masses, and discussions in living rooms across the nation where men and women talked frankly abut their changes attitudes of the changing Church.

He also discusses the far-reaching effects on the Church of Pope Paul's controversial encyclical on birth control.

In dramatic, down-to-earth fashion Mr. Roche blends these events, conflicts, and moods to explain what the mounting turmoil is all about. He also reveals the creative forces at work today that are giving an increasing sense of discovery to the Catholic Church as it wrenches from its medieval past toward a genuine confrontation with man in the secular city.