| One of the many results of Vatican Council II was that lay Catholic organizations originated around particular concerns, both in the United States and Europe. These concerns paralleled the many social movements occurring at that time. In the late 1970s, when several prominent theologians such as Hans Kung and Leonardo Boff were attacked, and in the second case even silenced by the Vatican, reform groups began to organize, both in the United States and Europe, in protest. With the current situation in the American Catholic church of priest shortage and sexual scandal, and a response of silence from the official leadership, many groups are working fervently for reform. As a further development, in 1991 several dozen national grassroots organizations formed a coalition to work together toward change, calling themselves COR (Catholic Organizations for Renewal). A similar phenomenon is also occurring in regions in the U.S. and in Europe. These groups are centered around such church concerns as the rights of Catholics to greater participation in all aspects and shared decision-making by the laity, women's ordination, a married priesthood, and gay and lesbian rights.;This research project is two-fold: in the first part, a history is sketched of the reform movement for the last 150 years, with particular focus on the formation of smaller sub-movements within the Catholic Reform movement; the second part is an analysis of the organizations using COR as a model. The dissertation attempts to answer the following questions: What happens when a collection of relatively small groups, marginalized and powerless, work together for the reform of a very large, strong, powerful formal organization such as the institution of the Roman Catholic church? What are the reform groups doing to try to effect change, and do they believe they are having an impact? How do they go about their work of church reform, and what are the processes?... |
