No Western Catholic church compares with the United States in commitment to the Eucharist. (Its celebration has never been comparably available in Latin American.)

Nowhere else has the Church developed hundreds of colleges and universities or thousands of parochial schools, most of which continue despite the disappearance of nun teachers that has more than doubled the burden on parents and parishes who must also pay their share of state school costs.

Yet none save Latin American countries, driven by a rich/poor gulf, is as divided and marked by dissent – in large part from actions of Pope Benedict XVI and his predecessor.

• Relatively high participation in parish life here is threatened by a shrunken priesthood stretched beyond reason: no pastor can shepherd five communities. Yet John Paul II and Benedict have opposed women and married priests, though women presided at early Eucharists, priests married until the Reformation and still do in Eastern rite churches, and most laity approve both.

A long marginalized laity have filled much of the vacuum in parish community leadership everywhere, even sustaining closed parishes. Impatient with Rome, dozens of women have now been ordained; many married priests have taken up needed ministries.

• Instead of moving toward the collegiality Vatican II espoused, Rome has become more controlling; episcopal appointees are marked by loyalty, not pastoral qualities. Only patriarchy’s preoccupation with the appearance of perfection and indifference to the shattered innocence of children made the sex abuse scandal possible.

But the patriarchy has yet to take responsibility: none of the 200-odd bishops who moved abusing priests around has been removed or, in recognition of unworthiness, resigned. Their authority is now endured or dismissed, honored only by those who define the Church as the hierarchy.

• Vatican II liturgical reforms identifying the priest as presiding at the community’s celebration, as in the early church, have been widely welcomed. Those resistant to that understanding of the Eucharist or offended by shoddy celebrations seek out Council of Trent Masses where they are passive spectators of the priest’s celebration – mumbled in Latin. Rome is now challenging reforms by changes again separating the priest celebrant from the assembly.

• Laity who cling to an understanding of Catholicism as conformity to unchangeable (actually, often changed) rules and rubrics tattle to Rome on any departure. Others ignore its writ. Contraception and abortion prohibitions are widely flouted.

• The spirituality of Vatican II Catholics has matured through the writings of Thomas Keating, Richard Rohr, Henri Nouwen, Diarmuid O’Murchu, Joan Chittister, and others – through centering prayer, Celtic spirituality, and creation theology. Across the divide, private prayer remains the Rosary and devotions to saints.

• The 1980s peace and economics pastorals reflected Vatican II engagement with the world and involved lay consultation. Since the impasse with Rome scuttled the pastoral on women, the bishops have largely abdicated peace and social justice leadership. Those committed to the social gospel are scandalized; others focus on abortion and same sex unions.

Emblematic of this division is the fate of Detroit Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, first president of Pax Christi USA and Bread for the World, whose appeals led to the peace pastoral, and who, since visiting U.S. hostages in Iran has accompanied victims of oppression everywhere. His online homilies are popular. For many he is the best face of the U.S. church.

When Gumbleton, himself a victim of priest sex abuse, testified for extending the statute of limitations for Ohio abuse victims, he was obliged to give up his inner-city parish, to retire, and his right to speak publicly was conditioned on approval of the local bishop. Last fall he was denied use of any Catholic facility for a Maine appearance and his presentation limited to an unadvertised “conversation.”

The divide between those who look to Rome and its rules, comfortable with patriarchy, and those moved more by the Sermon on the Mount is wide and deep. Millions, unfed or alienated or both have despaired and left.

Benedict may exercise caution here, ignore the divide, and, as in Europe, speak largely to the large cohort of secularists, individualists, and materialists who ignore both rules and the Beatitudes.

Bill Slavick, coordinator of Pax Christi Maine, was a long-time contributor to Church World. He lives in Portland.