What Happened to the Roman Catholic Church? What Now?: An Institutional and Personal Memoir

by Gabriel Moran

What Happened to the Roman Catholic Church? What Now? is a radical criticism of the Roman Catholic Church combined with some radical suggestions for dealing with its problems. The book is rooted in the tradition of the Church that the author draws upon in a creative way. The first three chapters trace the history of the Roman Catholic Church from 1945 to the crucial period of the 1960s. The remaining nine chapters examine various issues that surfaced after the partial reforms of the Second Vatican Council in 1962-65, By the mid-1970s, the Church had become badly split and the rift has never been healed. Millions of Roman Catholic who were disappointed at the direction that the Church took have ceased to be practicing members. Many people are skeptical about the Church's future. A positive attitude toward the Church that Pope Francis has generated has beenlargely obscured by the clergy sex-abuse scandal. This problem requires some profound examination of the structure of the Church. The author proposes a way to retain the function of priesthood while eliminating a clerical class. The heart of the book is that the basis of the Church's teaching are two concepts, revelation and natural law, that are badly in need of historical and philosophical criticism. Revelation is seldom examined because of the widespread assumption that it was made clear at the Second Vatican Council. The author contends that the Council never faced the question of what divine revelation is, where it came from and the limitation of its meaning today. The Church's use of the concept of natural law needs much better historical and philosophical study than is provided by the Catholic writers on the subject. These two concepts are central to the official positions of the Roman Catholic Church on abortion, homosexuality and end-of-life issues that are discussed in the book. In proposing organizational changes, the author starts from descriptions of the earliest church. It was a group of men and women who shared a special meal, listened to stories and writings about their founder, and did works that served the physical and spiritual needs of people. The hallmark of the church was community but as the church spread quickly and attracted many converts the sense of community was difficult to retain. This book examines the nature of community before proposing how the Church could be a community of communities. The last chapter of the book describes a democratic form of the Church which was not possible for most of history but is now both possible and necessary.

303 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 9, 2021

Reviews

[Francine Apollo · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author, a former Christian Brother, has written a sweeping survey of the Catholic Church from 1945-present. I have been a Catholic through most of the period, being a product of post WWII baby boom. There is lots that is in need of reforming in the Church. The author writes with insight, honesty and from personal experience to offer new directions, new ways of thinking, more inclusive ways of being Roman Catholic.
I am the product of Catholic schools and it informed me and rang true many times.
Highly recommended for those who like to read about matters of faith.

[Dave · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow. There's just a lot of stuff in here passed off as fact, that is totally out of line with the teachings of the Church. What makes this book bad, is the author makes sweeping generalizations and crouches them as accepted fact, when in fact, his interpretations do not confirm with the traditional or mainline teaching on the issue or ignore the bigger picture. I don't know if I want to go into detail about every derivation and try to refute in this review. As much as the author claims to be writing to practicing Catholics, he spends a lot of time smoothing the edges that Protestants and non-believers find difficult about our faith. Since he lays his foundation on sand and not solid rock, his projections are difficult to take seriously. He seems more interested in ecumenical work than reviving faith. Although he claims to support the real presences in Eucharist and is alarmed as I am about the decline of its belief, his suggestions will only hasten and not reverse it.

I wanted to like this because his central message is that the Chruch needs to get back to Jesus main teaching which is summarized in the Sermon on the Mount and pursue both the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, and I agree whole heartedly, but I can't get on board with the rest. Although I did find some of the points he makes like on Human Vitae and Pius XII's pronouncement on the assumption thought provoking. It still doesn't add up.

[Benedict F. Shafer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a very good read, insightful, informative and very well written. The author reveals his life experiences and provides great information about our lives as Roman Catholics.
I recommend this book to all who are interested in the Church and desire additional insite.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book discussion prompted me to read this. The last chapter made up for the personal memoir ramblings of the previous chapters. A short Bio would have sufficed, for my purposes and his credentials. In other words, this would have make a great pamphlet!

[John Owen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was raised Catholic but am no longer. A high school classmate (Catholic of course) told me he found this book to be very interesting, so I decided to read it.

The author is an 80+ year old former Christian Brother who believes the Church need extensive reform in order to survive. I very much agree with his ideas but don't see how they would ever come about. It seems that the Church is headed in an even more conservative direction than the one Moran outlines.

Moran talks about the 50s and 60s which was the era I grew up in, so this made it even more interesting to me. These were the years when the Church was very powerful and tried (unsuccessfully) to reform and modernize.

If you are a Catholic or a former Catholic or just someone who finds this sort of thin interesting, you should read this.