The world we know has been irrevocably shaped by certain major movements of massive significance: among them, the Enlightenment and Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, the French Revolution, and the American Revolution-to say nothing of lengthened life, heightened education, and awareness of women's rights. Largely untouched by the fundamental attitude of much of these changes is the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church is probably the only major global institution where the emphasis on a central monarchy has been steadily growing-the Roman papacy and episcopal hierarchy. Change will inevitably come to the Church and that change will include the Roman Catholic Church. What is proposed in this book is a flexible shape that opens the way to such change, implemented immediately at grass roots. To express it simply, gatherings of the grass roots folk for clergy-free small-group eucharists and more rarely for small group clergy-free celebrations of reconciliation; the equivalent of current priests would focus above all on leadership in faith communities.
Very basically, reality needs to be given to the priesthood of the faithful and emphasis given to the importance of leadership in faith communities. The shape that this reality and this emphasis will be given will vary enormously in each culture and society. The need for some basic underlying direction is not difficult to discern.
