In U.S. pope will find multicultural church marked by stronger laity

Published: 2008-02-15

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- What kind of Catholic Church will Pope Benedict XVI find when he arrives in the United States in April? How similar or different will it be from the U.S. church community that greeted Pope John Paul II on his first papal visit in 1979 or his last trip to the U.S. in 1999? Scholars and experts contacted by Catholic News Service at Catholic universities around the country did not always agree on the answers to those questions, but several themes emerged. They saw a church dealing with parish consolidations or closings and a declining availability of priests, but also experiencing a new vibrancy in lay ecclesial ministry. They saw what one called "a chastened church" after the clergy sex abuse scandal but a church that has learned important lessons about accountability. And they saw a church already more than one-third Hispanic and still learning how to adapt to the realties of multiculturalism.

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