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The most vocal parishioners these days are often women who feel unfairly treated by the church. Betty Jane Schlachter, a Detroit feminist, says, "It seems in church we are expected to be led by a chain." Ruth Fitzgerald, director of the Women's Ordination Conference, which is promoting priesthood for women, calls Catholicism the "last bastion of sexism in America." She predicts, "The church will wither away in power and influence if this doesn't change."
Feminists and homosexuals are planning demonstrations during the papal tour. % Gay activists have become angrier than ever about the church since a strict Vatican policy statement was issued last October. Rome ordered bishops to withdraw their support from organizations that criticize or are "ambiguous" about church teaching on homosexuality; as a result, at least 13 prelates refused to let Dignity, a gay Catholic organization, hold meetings on church premises. "What you're seeing is a Vatican out of control. They're hysterical!" exclaims Kevin Gordon, a gay Catholic activist in New York City.
Militant protest is not confined to left-wing radicals. A small but extremely active group of archconservatives believes that even U.S. bishops are unfaithful in upholding church teaching. One of the most outspoken traditionalists is A.J. Matt Jr., editor of the Catholic weekly the Wanderer (circ. 38,000) of St. Paul. The Pope is "poorly served by his hierarchy," says Matt, who thinks U.S. bishops should suppress all who are "contradicting the teaching of the church." Matt has readers in the Vatican, and attacks by him and other conservatives played a part in Rome's move against Hunthausen.
Differences between the U.S. hierarchy and the Vatican are publicly downplayed. The 387 members of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops are officially aligned with the Pope, but a majority of moderates and liberals is subtly to the Pope's left on how to handle discipline. For their part, some of the Pope's Vatican advisers are convinced that much U.S. dissent is "artificially manipulated" by the media, as one prelate puts it. The Vatican dislikes not only the American dissent but also the fact that, as another official complains, "in the U.S., people are used to going public about everything."
One key factor is cultural. The Rev. Richard McBrien, chairman of the University of Notre Dame's theology department, says that in the U.S., "laity are used to thinking for themselves. They simply accept as basic what any American citizen accepts as basic -- due process, freedom of expression, all those things we identify with the Bill of Rights." And they question. "The Vatican doesn't grasp that," says a high-ranking priest in Rome. "It is put down to naivete or ignorance when U.S. Catholics want to know why. The Vatican is puzzled." And, sometimes, dismissive.
"The celebrities of religious life in the United States do not represent the overwhelming majority of U.S. Catholics," maintains a Vatican functionary, referring to oft-quoted liberal critics. But in informal conversation, Rome's strategists readily acknowledge the depth of dissent and refer to doctrinal skirmishing. A Vatican official who is eager to realign the U.S. behind papal teaching muses, "The American bishops want to see the trip completed without further damage. The challenge on this side is how to beat the bishops at their own game."