Mar 21, 2006 6:02 pm US/Eastern
Expert Says Time For Change In Catholic Church
by Lisa Hughes
(CBS4)
If you talk to Catholics, in particular younger Catholics, many will say they are conflicted right now. They want to celebrate their faith; it is a part of who they are. But whether it is the handling of the church sex abuse crisis or the decision to stop offering adoption services, many have problems.
Now one author has come out with a new book that is sure to stir up some controversy. He says it is time for American Catholics to get more involved in changing the church.
This as Pope Benedict XVI prepares to elevate 15 new cardinals on Friday, including Boston Archbishop Sean O'Malley.
"He was probably picked because he is a very spiritual guy, and he is a Franciscan and his thing is poverty," says author and lifelong Catholic Robert Blair Kaiser.
That may have attracted the Vatican to the Archbishop, but he certainly is not drawn to the pomp and circumstance of Rome. That is more the style of Bernard Cardinal Law, who served Boston from 1984 until he resigned in 2003.
"He is uncomfortable and he has got to do certain things that Cardinal Law was doing that deal with money and power and he doesn't quite know how to do it," says Kaiser.
The conclave of cardinals comes at time when many American Catholics are feeling restless. Kaiser has written a new book, "A Church In Search Of Itself," in which he suggests it may be time for a new form of Catholicism.
"The tradition in Boston and the United States is liberty, and freedom, and constitution, people, so I say we need a people's church in the United States, a homegrown Catholicism would look more like the country itself," he says. "The Catholic Church has to change or it is going to end up as a museum piece."
Kaiser studied as a Jesuit but was never ordained. As a reporter, he covered the Vatican for Time and CBS for 40 years. He is the first to admit that change comes very slowly in the church, but says discussing these things is the first step.
CBS4's Lisa Hughes will be in Rome all week, leading up to Friday's elevation ceremony. You can watch that ceremony live Friday morning at 4:30am on CBS4 and CBS4Boston.com.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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