Preface With the death of Pope John Paul II and the election of his successor, Benedict XVI, a new era has begun in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. But the crisis that has wracked the Church since the Second Vatican Council (1962 1965) goes on, even if the faithful hope that during the present pontificate measures will at last be taken to bring the crisis to an end. Over the past forty years a growing number of Catholics have come to recognize what is manifest: that the postconciliar crisis began with, and has resulted from, a host of...