Catholics Conflicts And Choices An Exploration Of Power Relations In The Catholic Church

"Many Catholics today are disenchanted with the Church's continuing distrust of women and laity. Despite this widespread dissatisfaction, traditional power relations have hardly chanaged over the last century. Catholics, Conflicts and Choices presents detailed interviews with lay people, priests, Sisters, and Christian Brothers, each discussing their personal struggles with church teaching and practices. The conversations are selected to illustrate different experiences of power relations - particularly different aspects of gender dynamics - within the organizational structures of the Church. The interviews are examined within a framework of feminist, sociological and psychological theory. Cathoics, Conflicts and Choices reveals how, despite a long history of challenging official notions of authority and obedience and assumptions about intimate relationship, there is little potential for change if the established power relations of the Church are not confronted." - back cover.