By Robert Royal

Many people in many nations these days say they "don't recognize" their country anymore. Between radical changes in sexual morals and social behavior, the inability to state the obvious like "what is a woman," claims of racism and "hate" over everyday social frictions, massive unregulated immigration, and wholesale dismissals of the past as irretrievably evil, it's no wonder.

But it is a wonder that similar complaints - not exactly the same, but closely related - also arise often enough now about disorienting changes in the Church.

Part of the problem is that media - even Catholic media - have to fill limitless digital spaces, often by emphasizing controversies that they hope will attract clicks. Another part, however, is the radical rupture, sometimes even within the Church, with age-old human truths and goods, driven by technological developments, but also by abandonment of traditional anchors in tested truths of faith and reason, in the name of human liberation.

To understand all this is not easy; to know what to do harder still. But now comes a very useful tool from TCT contributor, Francis X. Maier. True Confessions: Voices of Faith from a Life in the Church, which will be officially published tomorrow, is both a passionate statement of faith and love of the Church and a careful inquiry into what a cross-section of American bishops, priests, deacons, and lay people are thinking and doing at a very difficult moment for the Church and the world.

(Several anonymously, to get maximum candor.)

Fran Maier is the right man for this job and many others. He's been in the trenches. Archbishop Charles J.

Chaput, who made Maier his chancellor in Denver and special adviser in Philadelphia, provides a Foreword to this volume in which, among many other valuable things, he says, "In 26 years of working together, I've never had a moment when I questioned Fran's ability or character." I've known Fran even longer - though not at as close range - and would vouch for his reliability in what he says in his own name and in what he reports about others.

Many things in his book, therefore, warrant careful attention and offer realistic hope.

For example, he points to a recent survey:

the average Latin rite ordinary - i.e., the bishop actually in charge of a diocese, as opposed to an auxiliary - sleeps 6.49 hours a night and prays 1.80 hours a day. He works 6.33 days and about 51 hours each week. Ordinaries rank the National Catholic Reporter a progressive publication] lowest on a list of religious news publications they typically read. They rank the Fox network as their most frequently watched television news source.

Some 72 percent of ordinaries (and 88 percent of auxiliaries; they're not the boss) feel accepted by most of their priests. Barely 3 percent rank criticism from priests as a serious problem. And 97 percent list administering the sacraments and celebrating the liturgy as their greatest joy.

The anonymous comments by bishops are among the most interesting parts of the book, and what comes through, surprisingly, is how many of them "get" what's happening. For instance, "We're no longer arguing about how to get to a commonly shared goal. Now we have warring goals." Like their counterparts in the secular world, Church leaders have limited ability these days to shape what happens, even among Catholics, especially since the abuse crisis, which has eroded episcopal authority.

Furthermore, several bishops express worries like this one:

I have good relations with our local authorities. I support our police and certainly don't fear them. But when it comes to the federal government, I do believe that we're dealing with a totalitarian attitude now. . . .Our Catholic schools are very important to the Church, but government could easily shut them down with content regulations that would make teaching a genuinely Catholic curriculum impossible. It's just a matter of refusing our schools' accreditation.

I don't know if it will happe...