ever, I believe that he makes his point clearest while looking at the Catholic Church. He notes that the Catholic Church is the most dramatic of these examples. Before Vatican Council II it was extremely unreasonable and unsociable, had many unreasonable requirements and absurd beliefs and yet was flourishing. After Vatican Council II the church has begun to see some validity in other Christian (and even non-Christian) churches. Fish on Friday is no longer obligatory, individual confession may be replaced by collective confession or none, the liturgy has been purged of anti-Semitic references, and large segments of the church have begun to resist the Pope on issues such as priestly celibacy, the pill, and even infallibility itself. And the result of this more reasonable, more ecumenical, more acceptable, more tolerant, more relevant to today's world approach is not that it has experienced a great surge in growth, but that it has suffered the defection of hundreds of priests and nuns, not to mention lay members. Between 1963 and 1970, 14,148 priests have requested release from clerical vows. Why was this the result of Vatican II? Kelley would say that in loosing their separateness, they lost part of the meaning that they c
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