The Coming Catholic Church: How the Faithful Are Shaping a New American Catholicism

Beyond the headlines of crisis, an unprecedented transformation is reshaping the American Catholic Church from the pews to the pulpit.

Rather than chronicling the well-reported sexual abuse scandal or advocating a particular reform agenda, David Gibson shows how the crisis in the church is unleashing forces that will change American Catholicism forever.

Gibson looks beyond institutional dysfunction to examine how an energized laity demands financial transparency and administrative accountability. Parish councils and independent review boards increasingly challenge the traditional boundaries of clerical authority.

Shrinking vocations and an aging priesthood exist alongside married convert pastors, a reality tracked here without partisan recriminations, as American dioceses find centralized governance strained by the democratic expectations of the modern faithful.

• United States Church History: Uncovers the forgotten legacy of nineteenth-century lay trusteeism, when Catholic laymen across New York and Charleston incorporated their own parishes and hired pastors long before episcopal monopolies took hold.


• Case Studies: Reconstructs critical flashpoints including the tense 2002 Dallas bishops conference, where Bishop Wilton Gregory delivered an unprecedented public confession of episcopal failure before hundreds of assembled prelates and reporters.


• Leadership Frameworks: Examines grassroots renewal initiatives such as Voice of the Faithful, founded in a Wellesley church basement to channel lay frustration into structured advocacy for systemic reform.


• Also by This Author: The Rule of Benedict.