LONG ISLAND (NY)
The New York Times
By PAUL VITELLO
Published: February 5, 2006
Among American Catholics raised in the years after the Second Vatican Council of 1962-65, church teaching has usually mixed orthodoxy with contemporary notions about the value of dialogue, self-exploration and the full-fledged participation of women in society. Whether by coincidence or not, theirs has been the generation of Catholics that produced the first widespread alarm about the sexual abuse of children by priests, a problem said by some to date back many generations.
But a reorganization of the doctrinal teaching system within the Diocese of Rockville Centre on Long Island, which was announced last week, has raised concerns among some Roman Catholics. They believe it augurs a shift to pre-Vatican II conservatism, a diminished role for women in the church and a new authoritarian stamp on the way 1.4 million church members on Long Island learn what it means to be Catholic and interact with their church.