Back to the Future of the Roman Catholic Church:.

This book explores the notion that the Roman Catholic Church risks imploding from within as a result of its inflexibility towards movements in favor of reasonable change and modernization. Attendance at Sunday Mass has dramatically decreased; the loss of the youth in these churches is a case in point. At the same time, the lack of vocations to the priesthood and religious life is at crisis proportions as is further evidenced by the closing of parishes and the curtailing of religious services including the rising phenomenon of "priest-less Parishes" Young men today-AL68even if they aspire to the priesthood-experience both unrest and rejection at the continued demand of the Church's leadership that priests commit themselves to the lifelong discipline of celibacy. Back to the Future of the Roman Catholic Church addresses the root causes of the various developments that have provoked discontent with Church policies and defections from parish life on the part of those who appear to have lost faith in their hierarchical leaders at the highest levels of Church governance. Finally, this book probes the ways in which the Church can emerge from its crises to become, once again, faithful to its origins as founded by Jesus Christ.

Carmen J. Calvanese is an adjunct professor at Saint Joseph's University, Alvernia University, and Manor College. In addition to writing and research, teaching is his passion. Calvanese claims that his pedagogical philosophy is centered on students with deep desires to excel and achieve, for once a mind is stretched, it never returns to its original form.

Geffrey B. Kelly is Professor of Systematic Theology at La Salle University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Best known for his research and publications on the theology and spirituality of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Kelly is past president of the International Bonhoeffer Society, English Language Section. The present book is the offshoot of his editorial work for the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works English Edition--the new translations and critical editions of the collected writings of Bonhoeffer, which are being published by Fortress Press. Among his recent works on Bonhoeffer are Liberating Faith (2002), The Cost of Moral Leadership (2002), and A Testament to Freedom: (1995).