Chaos in the Catholic Church: A Call for Reform

Catholic New Times, Dec 18, 2005

Chaos in the Catholic Church: A Call for Reform by R. John Kinkel, Xlibris, 2005, 186 pp.

A cri de coeur one might call a polemic on the current state of the Catholic church by Detroit native John Kunkel, this book aptly sums up in layman's language, the lamentable condition of the church. The author takes us through the triumphalist 1950s through the birth control debade, "when Catholics began losing confidence in the church" to the sex abuse earthquake. In the latter case, he draws interesting links between Vietnam and sex abuse. Kinkel is withering in his criticism of church leaders and the "present gerontocracy." At the end, he adds necessary dollops of hope and predictable remedies like ending celibacy.