American Church.

CATHOLIC Church; PRIESTS; ASSIMILATION (Sociology); CHURCH & state; ORAL contraceptives; BIRTH control

The article discusses the 21st-century crisis facing American Catholicism that includes the falling numbers of priests and religious, and the declining participation in the sacramental life of the Church. The factors attributed to this includes the cultural assimilation of American Catholics into the secular mainstream, the idea of separation of church and state, and the revolution in morality that the birth control pill ushered in.