The Coming Catholic Church

Beyond the headlines of scandal lies a deeper struggle for authority, faith, and the future of American Catholicism.

Rather than chronicling the well-reported sexual abuse scandal or advocating a particular reform agenda, David Gibson shows how the crisis in the church is unleashing forces that will change American Catholicism forever.

Gibson charts the historic divide between the hierarchy and the pews, examining decades of tension over parish governance and mandatory celibacy. In local listening sessions and national meetings, lay Catholics organize to demand financial transparency.

Instead of proposing ideological panaceas, the volume grounds its analysis in the lived realities of overworked pastors and thinning presbyterates.

• Church History: Examines early American experiments in parish governance, from John England’s 1820 constitution in Charleston to immigrant trustee boards that routinely managed property before episcopal power centralized.
• Case Studies: Follows the work of the National Review Board under Frank Keating, deploying former federal investigators across 194 dioceses to audit compliance and challenge institutional secrecy.
• Ecclesiology: Investigates the evolving sacramental identity of the priesthood, including the pastoral provision that introduced married convert pastors into American dioceses.
• Also by This Author: The Rule of Benedict.