The 1.1 billion-member Roman Catholic Church is "so gigantic" that it is difficult to have a single set of policies and goals for every part of the world, Claude said. In Latin America, the Catholic Church is experiencing millions of defections to evangelical Protestant churches, while the United States has a severe priest shortage and Chinese Catholics are worshiping underground.
The church would govern more effectively by decentralizing its organization, giving more power to local bishops and getting input from clergy and laity, he said.
The Vatican permitted other American priests to elect John Carroll as a bishop in 1789.
(Georgetown University)
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Democratization efforts have been present since the Second Vatican Council, which was convened by Pope John XXIII to try to modernize the church. But U.S. individualism led proponents for change too far, prompting the Vatican to tighten the reins instead of loosening them, said Sister Sharon Euart, a canon lawyer and former associate general secretary of the bishops conference.
For example, the council's call for the Mass to be given in the language of the people rather than Latin led some U.S. Catholics to stray from the approved English liturgy by doing their own translations, including writing their own prayers, she said.
Tradition remains a powerful force in the spiritual lives of American Catholics, including some who consider themselves liberals on social issues.
Chris Ragonese, 39, who attends Mass daily at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Northwest, supports abortion rights and same-sex marriages. Still, "you have to be careful" when trying to change such traditions as how bishops are appointed or the church is governed, he said.
"Most Catholics, we are very traditional when it comes to those things," said Ragonese, a grants administrator for the National Endowment for Democracy, an organization that helps fund efforts by indigenous peoples worldwide to achieve democratic governments.
"When you start making decisions from the bottom up, it's more like the Presbyterian church. If you want to be Presbyterian, be Presbyterian," he said.
Some traditionalists believe it is time for a pope with a more hands-on management style, one who will more actively help resolve such issues as the sexual abuse scandal that has damaged the U.S. Catholic Church.
"Nothing is going to change in the basic doctrine of the Church, but we need a change in style," said Kathryn Shaker Sperrazzo, a member of St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Falls Church and a defender of Catholic tradition.
"John Paul II was an outstanding theologian and thinker, a prophet who wrote many encyclicals on a wide range of issues," she said. "Now we need to digest those views, to choose an administrator with charisma who will put into action the doctrine and enlightenment John Paul II gave to the faithful."
