Report on the Church

Richard P. McBrien remains a leading spokesman for the reform movement within the Catholic church—a constituency that includes many of the fifty million Catholics in the United States. In this vital and wide-ranging collection spanning nearly thirty years of writing since Vatican II sparked changes in the Church, McBrien speaks to the most controversial issues in the Roman Catholic church today—issues of concern to millions of people, Catholic and non-Catholic alike: authority, the ordination of women, marriage for the priesthood, birth control, abortion, the legacy of Vatican II, women in the church, the church's role in society and politics, ecumenism, personalities and popes, and the future of the church. "The post-conciliar Church shows signs of vibrancy and malaise alike," writes McBrien. "It is marked at the same time by uncertainty, demoralization, conflict, and alienation, on the one hand, and by a remarkable liturgical, ministerial, and spiritual renewal, on the other. As Charles Dickens put it at the beginning of A Tale of Two Cities, it is for the Church 'the best of times and the worst of times.'" Incisive, and always candid, McBrien addresses almost every major issue, event, need, and dispute to have affected the Church in the last three decades. In clear, straightforward language, Report on the Church presents a fascinating and provocative exploration of the modern Church and its effects on the world around it.