The Catholic Church in the United States and Europe has seen declining numbers both in regular attendance and in clergy and religious life. Scandals have torn at people's allegiance, and feelings of disappointment, disillusion, and anger have become widespread. Church authorities have seemed reluctant to acknowledge or address these problems and have responded with vexation to those who raise them from the Right or Left. The Crisis of Confidence in the Catholic Church examines the roots of this crisis in light of the nature of the Church community, its institutional structure, and the historical experiences that have brought it to this pass. Raymond Helmick, SJ, traces the problems of the Catholic Church far back in its history - the concentration of Church leadership on controlling the Christian population, a requirement of obedience to their rulings rather than on the Gospel values of Jesus, the defensiveness and self-righteousness in the face of any criticism. Helmick also emphasizes the role of the Second Vatican Council as it brought the Church to an awareness of its potentiality for an active life of faith by its total membership.
How will the Church revive? Helmick believes that a new growth of Christianity can come now only by a return to the love and care of its original premises, to the things that are redolent of the life of Jesus. The 'new evangelization' can only be done by living a Christian life, giving an example.
View a guide of selected resources (PDF) on this topic available through the Libraries.
The Art of Anatheism
Edited by Richard Kearney
& Matthew Clemente
Grand Challenges for Social Work and Society
Edited by Rowena Fong
& James Lubben
& Richard Barth
The Technology Fallacy: How People Are the Real Key to Digital Transformation
by Gerald C. Kane
& Anh Nguyen Phillips, Jonathan R. Copulsky, & Garth R. Andrus
Lebanon's Jewish Community: Fragments of Lives Arrested
by Franck Salameh
Jesuit Philosophy on the Eve of Modernity
by Cristiano Casalini
Televising Restoration Spain
by Wan Sonya Tang
Various Articles
by Joseph F. Quinn, Ph.D
A Lily Blooms in Winter
by Alston Conley
Navigating Toward Adulthood: A Theology of Ministry with Adolescents
by Theresa O'Keefe
The History and Philosophy of Science: A Reader
by Daniel McKaughan
& Holly VandeWall
Motherhood across Borders: Immigrants and Their Children in Mexico and New York
by Dr. Gabrielle Oliveira
Redefining Retirement For Nurses; Finding Meaning In Retirement
by Patricia A. Tabloski
& Joanne Evans
Holy Spirit: Setting the World on Fire
Co-Edited by Richard Lennan
& Nancy Pineda-Madrid
Learn to Program using Swift for iOS Development
by John Gallaugher
Technology and Engagement: Making Technology Work for First-Generation College Students
by Heather T. Rowan-Kenyon
& Ana M. Martínez Alemán
& Mandy Savitz-Romer, PhD
Coercion: The Power to Hurt in International Politics
by Peter Krause
& Timothy Crawford
Why You Eat What You Eat
by Rachel Herz
Antique Coptic Textiles in McMullen Museum
by Nancy Netzer
Listening to Early Modern Catholicism: Perspectives from Musicology
Edited by Michael Noone
& Daniele V. Filippi
Nazi Law: From Nuremberg to Nuremberg
Edited by John J. Michalczyk
Academic–Practitioner Relationships: Developments, Complexities and Opportunities
by Jean M. Bartunek
& Jane McKenzie
Rebel Power: Why National Movements Compete, Fight, and Win
by Peter Krause
Father Blake on his life long involvement with Film Studies and his twenty-two years at Boston College
by Richard Blake S.J. Ph.D.
Written for Our Instruction: Theological and Spiritual Riches in Romans
by Thomas D. Stegman, S.J.
English Alliterative Verse: Poetic Tradition and Literary History
by Eric Weiskott
From Neither Here Not There
by Sammy Chong, S.J.
21st Century Corporate Citizenship: a Practical Guide to Delivering Value to Society and Your Business
by Katherine Valvoda Smith and Dave Stangis
