Supreme Authority: Understanding Power in the Catholic Church

Do the organizational structure and Church policy support the politics of oppression, including the recent disclosures of sex abuse and cover-ups?

Power in the Church, power and world culture.

Abuse, celibacy, the role of women, accountability and infallibility and where they fit into Church tradition.

Concrete ways to move ahead within the Church through understanding and transforming power.

The Catholic Church is a micro-lens (albeit a large one) for viewing power and the effects of power abuses in the larger world culture. In Supreme Authority, the authors of The Complete Idiot's Guide® to Understanding Catholicism take the four marks of Catholic identity--It is One; It is Catholic; It is Holy; It is Apostolic--and move them forward to a new understanding of these pillars of the Church. Issues to be explored include the Pre-Vatican II Church, Vatican II, the relationship of power and sexual abuse, how decisions are made in the Church, celibacy, the all-male clergy, the church's hierarchy and more. The object is not to criticize the Church, but rather to empower the people with ways to understand its current dynamics and provide concrete ways of moving forward within it.