A friend mentioned that it is not clear if a comment to the blog would be public. If someone writes a comment and says explicitly not to publish it, I will honor that. Otherwise, I will make my own decision whether or not to feature the comment publicly on this blog site. Bob Willis, 8/21/07

Purpose of this Blogsite

Since the 2nd Vatican Council, the American Catholic Church has been in turmoil. The once uniform community is splintered. One group wishes for, and strives to realize, a return to the Tridentine church that had existed since the 16th Century. A second group longs for the realization of Vatican II in practice, a realization that has been frustrated by recalcitrant Church leadership. Yet a third group simply longs for peace and would simply like the nightmare to go away. Two complicating factors make almost any resolution very difficult. In the first place, since 1968 vast numbers of the church’s professionals–priests and sisters and brothers–have departed. As vocations have all but dried up, the numbers of active priests and religious keep falling while those who remain have a median age of 60 or older. In addition, since 2002 the community has been astounded by and chagrined at the pedophilia scandal that has blemished both bishops and priests. And the ineffectiveness of our leaders to handle the problem in the first instance is compounded by their denial and lack of straightforward action to deal once and for all with the problem. I am creating this blogsite to offer to interested parties books and articles that I have written that explore our Church’s crisis. I hope that our sharing may give a forum for reasoned discussion about solutions in this most troubling time. 

Robert J. Willis, Ph.D. [rjjwillis@gmail.com]