Only 5 Million “Real” Catholics in the U.S.? | Religion Dispatches

 

lately the behavior of the Vatican and the USCCB seems just plain over the top. First there was the “new translation” of the Roman missal—ugly, wordy, Latinized, inaccurate—a ritual assault on the liturgical renewal at the heart of Vatican II. Then there was the USCCB’s attack on the work of the moderate Catholic feminist theologian, Sister Elizabeth Johnson. Next came the bishops’ “religious freedom” attack on Barack Obama in an election year when the other candidates promise to eviscerate the social safety net. And now the Vatican is going after the sisters. The pollsters had better gear up, because the number of Americans identifying with—and funding—the institutional church is definitely at risk.

Maybe the Vatican’s attack on the LCWR is part of an effort to cut back to a smaller, purer, American church. But as I said to that priest in San Francisco, sixty million seems like a lot of Catholics to dismiss.

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