I like what I see from the Gov. Keating Story in National Catholic Register. it is clear that this is a gentleman who does not intend to tread lightly, I guess to the chagrin of many. I wouldn't go as far as saying that "Luther was right," as Gov. Keating says, because even if Luther was, which is very possible, I still consider him . . . a dud-head. But, I guess if Luther advocated more participation by the laity then, I guess, and i say this with obvious shame in my voice, Luther was right.

I think the one trend that the Vatican and the U.S. Bishops' and perhaps, a whole host of very conservative Catholics, are missing is the fact that U.S. Catholics are being formed with very different views on what the Church is and should be.

I taught a social ethics course at a well known Catholic university as an adjunct faculty member. The students for the most part fell into the moderate to conservative camps of Catholicism, but their questions regarding the Church, its governance and some of its history alerted me to the fact that the Gen Y and D youths and young adults in the U.S. may have very American ideas of the World and Catholicism and the Catholic hierarchy is simply oblivious to this siesmic shift.

I think many conservative Catholics tend to look at the Steubenvilles, University of Dallases, the St. Thomas', etc and think all is well and conservative in young Catholic America. I say not necessarily, at least not for conservatives. I personally like the trend I have observed among Catholic youths and young adults because it infuses much needed new blood and ideas. But for there to be a marriage of this new blood and the Church, the Church structures must prepare themselves to become more elastic or they might break under the weight of new trends and attitudes.

The new is not a bad thing, what is bad is when "the new" forgets that it was born of "the old."