Word: greeleys
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Those figures-and a theory to explain them-appeared this spring in a new book called Catholic Schools in a Declining Church (TIME, April 5) by Priest-Sociologist Andrew Greeley and his colleagues at Chicago's National Opinion Research Center, William C. McCready and Kathleen McCourt. Their conclusion: Humanae vitae created a massive crisis of authority in the church. An ethical mandate from the Pope, promulgated by his bishops, was quietly-if not without some qualms of conscience-rejected by Catholic families. In turn, there were empty pews in church, no more lines at the confessional...
...Greeley theory has been sharply questioned by some other scholars, by churchmen, and by people who cannot forget that Greeley is also a sharp-penned journalist. But many Catholics agree that Humanae vitae was, at the very least, a blow that shattered rising expectations for change. The Second Vatican Council had signaled to Catholics that they might have more freedom than they once thought. The crucial Declaration on Religious Freedom (largely the work of American Jesuit John Courtney Murray) stated that religious liberty was a human right-an admission the church had never before made. It was by no means...
...departures of lay Catholics are less frequent now, but there were many. Some succumbed to what Greeley calls the "meat on Friday"* syndrome: "Once it became legitimate [in 1966] to eat meat on Friday, one could doubt the authority of the Pope, practice birth control, leave the priesthood and get married or indeed do anything else one wanted to," he writes. Although he rejects this factor as a major explanation of the religious falloff, certain Catholics found it painfully real. "Vatican II amazed me," wrote Author Doris Grumbach in the Critic, "because it raised the possibility of more answers than...
Still, the majority of U.S. Catholics are comfortable with the new liturgies. Greeley's study found that more than 80% approved or even preferred the new rites. "When I was a kid, you didn't understand what was happening in Mass," remembers Janet Tambascio, a young mother who grew up in St. Columbkille's parish in Brighton, Mass. "You played with your rosary beads, which had nothing to do with anything. Now we aren't just sitting in Mass; we're participating...
...Greeley has already briefed officials at the Vatican and the U.S. Catholic Conference on his findings, and he does not hesitate to propose radical solutions. It would be extraordinary but possible for the Pope to "repeal" the birth control encyclical, and Greeley thinks it must be done to halt U.S. church "deterioration." As for the schools, he expects further dwindling of enrollment unless the bishops let the laity take control of fund raising and administration. Says Greeley: "If I were a bishop and I saw this data, I'd call a panic meeting." Archbishop Joseph L. Bernardin, head...