Running a small organization can be a difficult task but trying to lead, coordinate and keep in unity the world’s largest volunteer organization, namely the Church, is always loaded with difficulties. At the present time, the Church has more than its share of headaches. For example, a few of them are:

• The bishops of Australia called for a meeting with top Vatican officials to calm the situation in that country over the fallout from the abrupt manner in which one of their brother bishops had been removed.

• Ten percent of the priests of Austria are committed to liturgical disobedience on a number of issues.

• Tension is ongoing in Ireland. In the meantime, the Irish government has closed its embassy to the Vatican.

• In Kansas City, Missouri, the diocesan bishop has been indicted.

• In Washington, there is an argument between Archbishop Wuerl, Chair of the Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine, and a famous theologian, Sister Elizabeth Johnson, over who communicated with whom and when regarding the blistering criticism that the committee delivered against her book.

The common thread running through most of this tension is the very widespread view that Vatican officials continue to rollback one aspect or another of the Second Vatican Council. That means that the hope and confidence that was so evident in the Church in the 1960’s and 1970’s is gradually being quashed.

All in all, tension and conflict continues to ripple through the Church and a great deal more work will have to be done in order to return the Church to a relative state of peace and calmness.

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