The Dynamic 1950s: The American Laity before Vatican II

Timothy Kelly will illustrate the ways in which American lay Catholics’ changing practices, including a marked decline in devotional behavior and the rejection of a culturally autonomous Catholic society, preceded the innovations of the Council.   Furthermore, he will propose, as a topic for discussion, that this transformation initiated by the American laity would have altered Catholicism profoundly, even without the intervention of the Second Vatican Council.