CATHOLICISM

Thus far two drafts of chapters have been written on the topic of Catholicism, which for our classification purposes concern the Church as an organization. The first chapter entitled Alienated Catholics discusses individuals who, for one reason or another, have become estranged from the Church at some time in the past. Many of them would like to be accepted back as members, but they have unfortunate situations in their lives which hinder this. Several aspects of these problems are examined.

Catholicism, like most of the large religious groups in this country, has some members holding what are considered as conservative opinions on various issues, and others have mainly liberal views. The corresponding chapter listed with a link on the sidebar discusses various aspects of these cases.

A third chapter entitled Vatican II Before and After is in preparation. It will discusses how well the Council achieved its two seemingly contradictory goals, namely: a) bringing the Church closer to its roots in the distant past (resourcement), and b) making it face up to the problems of the modern world (aggiornamento). The Council accomplished these two ambitions about as well as one could have optimistically expected it to. The documents promulgated by the Council itself, and those issued after it, attest to this.