Joe - you are obviously in a very fortunate position where you are. Don't ever let anyone in your parish let on to the powers that be in Rome at the moment how you see things - cos they'll be down on you like a ton of bricks.

I think you would be very surprised if you ever spent time in European / UK parishes: to the point of wondering if you were in the same church.

Does the name Hubert Richards mean anything to you - he was a prof in theology in Rome in the early 60s? I knew him in the early 70s when he was living in the parish I was in at the time. He was a lay person and married by then. He warned us liberals about the attitudes and ambitions of a certain Ratzinger then - and he was right.

I and mine collapsed (like lapsed, only more so) as the UK church slowly slid away from VAT 2, and started lurching into old ways of thinking.

Eliza - perhaps you will look back on this episode, and see how working through aspects of it clarify your own thinking and belief for the future. I wish you luck in your search.

Paws