is not felt to represent the emotional and spiritual needs of people and that in their increasing awareness of that failure, people have rejected the authority of the Church.

The Church asserts moral authority but retains an inflexible and rigid world view to which they demand followers adhere, but the day-to-day, moment-to-moment, person-to-person world is more urgent. In many cases, people will do what they have to do before they will do what an abstract authority tells them to do.

The Church, as usual, seeks to demonize "secularism" as an encroaching evil which undermines the authority of the Church. But there are god-seekers (small 'g') who have found a sense of the divine (small 'd') in alleyways and abandoned lots and exiled wayfarers.

Until the Church includes all venues and all persons, it hasn't earned the authority it says it's owed.