CAMBRIDGE (MA)
The Christian Science Monitor
By Sara Miller Llana | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. – 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.