This book is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the current debates and tensions within American Catholicism, which are the result of the American Catholic confrontation with historical change that occurred between 1964 and 1974 and gave rise to the current division between liberals and conservatives in America's largest church.

In the 1960s, the Second Vatican Council enacted the most sweeping changes the Catholic Church had seen in centuries. In readable and compelling prose, Mark S. Massa tells the story of the cultural war these changes ignited in the United States - a war that is still being waged today. Suddenly, one Sunday, the mass as the faithful had always known it was different, and so was the Church they had believed was timeless and unchanging. Once the Church opened the door to change, Massa argues, it could not be closed again. Skirmishes broke out over the proper way to worship. Soon, Catholics were bitterly divided over birth control, abortion, celibacy, female priests, and the authority of the Church itself. As he narrates these turbulent events, Massa takes us beyond stereotypes of liberals and conservatives, offering new insights into the last fifty years of American Catholicism.

Massa goes in-depth on the aftermath of Vatican II in this country. This is absolutely essential reading if you want to understand the turmoil and turbulence that occurred in the American Church in the late 1960s.