Catholic identity in a changing church. The 1989 Flanagan lecture examines coping strategies

Change abounds in our lives. The Catholic Church needs to stop being fearful of changes and start benefiting from them. We have absorbed and become accustomed to a variety of social changes. In addition, significant changes in our religious behavior and attitudes need to be incorporated into our self-understanding. One problem is that we have no road map for the new territory marked by these unavoidable changes. In a previous era, our healthcare institutions were easily identifiable as Catholic because the people who ran them dressed in religious garb. Now laypeople are taking on more and more administrative roles in all our institutions. Where will future Catholic leaders come from? Parishes are still the core of the local Church experience in this country, and it is from this core that our future leaders emerge. Today, we need to regenerate this source of leadership. We have the opportunity to break new ground in community healthcare by building even closer connections with parishes. In addition, we can use parishes as resources for trained volunteers and professionals. Our healthcare operations can develop programs of consumer education through local communities. Finally, we can develop "centers of critical study" by combining some of our university resources with our healthcare resources.