Changing membership will demand reforms

Author foresees better, stronger Catholic Church

"We're at the threshold of a whole new way of thinking of what it is to be a Christian," author James Carroll says

March 7, 2001
Web posted at: 11:49 a.m. EST (1649 GMT)

By David Allan Dodson
Special to CNN.com

(CNN) -- James Carroll compares the Catholic Church to an ocean liner: Unable to maneuver quickly, it nevertheless can be turned with enough time and effort.

In his new book, "Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews," he calls for such a change of course, and warns that Christianity must reevaluate itself in order to account for sins of the past and present. He even goes so far in the book's final section as to call for a third Vatican Council and ask for a radical reformation of Catholic thought.

"Many people will assume I'm drawing a wildly idealistic portrait of what the church can become," says Carroll, a former priest. "I would argue that all of the changes I'm calling for are not only realistic, they're essential. And I'd also say that in some way or other, each of them is already underway."

Carroll's vision for Vatican III is indeed sweeping and dramatic. He calls for new ways of looking at scripture, demands that the church examine its position on power and democracy, and asks for repentance and reconciliation with Jews.

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Change is not impossible, insists Carroll. He cites the pope's visit last year to the Western Wall in Jerusalem, where the head of the church prayed without invoking Jesus' name. That single act, he says, reversed a 2,000-year-old tradition of "Christian denigration of the temple." "I believe that centuries from now, people will go back to that event as a major turning point in the relationship between Christians and Jews," he says.

Yet the real change, he thinks, will come from the masses, not those who say Mass.

"The Catholic Church is not the hierarchy," he says. "The Church is the Catholic people. And the Catholic people, wherever you look, are undergoing very basic changes in their attitudes about human life, God, and other religions. My strong conviction is that there are forces at work here that transcend the power of any party in the Church to stop them."

Educating the laity about their church and themselves will prompt change, Carroll says.

"There is a big divide between what religiously informed people - mainly scholars - know and think, and what the broad mass of worshipping people know and think," he says. "If we were as nave and unsophisticated in our attitudes toward finance or science or literature as we are in our attitudes toward religion, we would be a lost people. It's a basic problem that has to change."

And change it will, predicts Carroll, who says Catholics are taking a close look at their church. Many Catholics no longer see themselves as superior to other denominations or religions, he says. Vatican II has led to sweeping change, and Carroll suggests that we view the recent transformation as a beginning.

"We're at the threshold of a whole new way of thinking of what it is to be a Christian," he says. "It's a very hopeful time. These questions are ready to be engaged."

The single biggest question? Carroll recalls the query Peter directed at Jesus, when Jesus asked the disciple if he planned to join the crowds that were dispersing: "Lord, to whom should I go?"

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Contentville: James Carroll essay
Houghton Mifflin

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