In Massachusetts, Catholics torn by hierarchy, politics

As a dutiful Roman Catholic, Mildred Feloney drives to Saint Peter Parish here for 8 a.m. mass every morning.

But emblazoned on her bumper is an unmistakable token of dissent: "Keep the Faith, Change the Church."

The commute is old. The sticker on her Camry is new. It's a provocation that signals a profound stir among Catholics in Massachusetts.

Four years ago, the scandal of clergy sexually abusing children rocked this heavily Catholic state and drove a wedge between the hierarchy and laity. Today, that rift over trust has widened into a gulf over values. The reason? Tension between the state's liberalism and the church's conservatism, long compartmentalized by Catholics here, has been pushed into conflict by a series of high-profile issues pitting church and state against each other.

It's a tug of war that's fraying the loyalties of many area Catholics. Some, frustrated by what they characterize as hard-line homilies from their local priests, are shopping around for more-progressive parishes, or leaving church altogether. Others are committed to changing the church from within. They're resisting a culture they say is becoming less inclusive.

"I'm not moving out of this church just because things need to be changed," says Ms. Feloney, who prays in the same front-row pew each morning, but now just as fervently protests many church decisions. "I can't walk out on it; it's my church."

After centuries of unquestioning obedience to their clergy, Catholics saw in the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s an invitation to challenge Rome's teachings. Since then, many have formed opinions about divorce or abortion that differ from church doctrine. Yet they still called themselves "good" Catholics.

Today, however, more and more Catholics are struggling to reconcile their faith and their church.

Take Mark Wheeler. He attended mass in Massachusetts for two decades, but says there is no longer a place for him within a parish. He tried to reconnect to his faith a few years ago by trying out two churches in Cambridge, but instead of leaving uplifted, he says he felt discouraged. Now he and his wife aren't sure they want to baptize their newborn twins.

"The message [of Catholicism] at its core is universal and wonderful," he says. "But it's really hard, you look at your kid, and think what if they turn out to be gay or lesbian, and you've gotten them involved in an institution that tells them that's wrong."

That type of hesitation is what drives Feloney's bid for change.

"One thing I hope for my own kids, and any of the young adults I see, is to be able to find a home in a traditional church," she says, "and not stop thinking for themselves."

Her own church, Saint Peter Parish, sits on a pretty, tree-lined corner near Harvard University in the town mocked as "The People's Republic of Cambridge." Yet its Irish roots mean it straddles various class and social views.

In a climate in which fewer than 1 in 5 Catholics in the Boston area regularly attends mass at a parish, according to archdiocese statistics, many say Saint Peter is thriving. The Easter Sunday children's mass last month was bustling and joyful. Pastel balloons floated to the ceiling and an Easter bunny, who entered the church after communion, towered over the priest as he ended mass.

Scenes like that keep parishioner Karen Trainor coming back. Loquacious and friendly, she does not agree with every church decree, but she does not spend her time protesting. Instead, she focuses on life within Saint Peter. "I just don't feel complete if I don't go to church every Sunday," she says.

Her steady attendance in a time of tumult within the archdiocese shows a perseverance among the laity that impresses scholars. "If you think back over the last five years, it has been one shock after another," says James O'Toole, who is writing a book on the history of American Catholic laity. "Why, despite all of that, have people said, 'I am going to stay. I'm not going to let bad leadership drive me out?' "

But for many Catholics in Massachusetts, going to church is not enough anymore. On a recent weekday after mass, Feloney drives to the headquarters of Voice of the Faithful, the group formed in the wake of the sex scandal to try to strengthen the laity's role in the church.

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