The American Catholic Revolution: How the Sixties Changed the Church Forever - Hardcover

Massa S.J., Mark S.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199734127 ISBN 13: 9780199734122

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2010

Synopsis

In the 1960s, the Second Vatican Council enacted the most sweeping changes the Catholic Church had seen in centuries. In readable and compelling prose, Mark S. Massa tells the story of the cultural war these changes ignited in the United States - a war that is still being waged today.

Suddenly, one Sunday, the mass as the faithful had always known it was different, and so was the Church they had believed was timeless and unchanging. Once the Church opened the door to change, Massa argues, it could not be closed again. Skirmishes broke out over the proper way to worship. Soon, Catholics were bitterly divided over birth control, abortion, celibacy, female priests, and the authority of the Church itself.

As he narrates these turbulent events, Massa takes us beyond stereotypes of liberals and conservatives, offering new insights into the last fifty years of American Catholicism.

About this title

About the Author

Mark S. Massa, SJ, is the Dean of the School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College.

Reviews

This latest effort to digest the impact of the Second Vatican Council on Catholicism attempts to show that significant change did occur in the church in a way that is permanent and thus unlikely to be undone. Massa, professor of theology at New York's Jesuit-run Fordham University, dismisses the view ascribed to the late Pope John Paul II that Vatican II changed nothing essential in the belief and practice of the church. To say this, the author claims, is tantamount to trying to put the "genie back into the bottle." He defends his position by citing the changes in worship that were introduced and, for the most part, warmly welcomed by Catholics, touching off a revolution that he says was felt in the widespread rejection of the message of Humanae Vitae, the 1968 papal encyclical on birth control, and in reforms in religious communities, and also in social activism on the part of Catholics. Although by no means a comprehensive examination, Massa's work is thoughtful and will be of special interest to students of Vatican II and the 1960s social revolution.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0199734127
• ISBN 13: 9780199734122
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 218