Learned men and women have been writing for many years about the changes that need to come in the Church.

In 1991 William J Rademacher wrote:

"A trend sure to accelerate in the future is the growth of priestless parishes. In 1982, there were 21608 parishes without a resident priest in France. In the United States, at least seventy dioceses have priestless parishes with a total of 193 faith communities headed by either a woman religious, a deacon, a layperson, or a religious brother. In the priestless parishes where Sunday services were held, 139 women religiou were authorized to lead the prayer; 96 laywomen functioned in a similar manner.

One consequence of this growth of parishes led by laity and women religious is that the clergy will no longer be exculsively in charge of the sacred. There will also be less control over these nonordained ministers. The Eucharist will no longer be controlled by the clergy. There will be more and more Word ministries. There will also be a greater use of "extraordinary" ministers for the administration of the sacraments.

An obvious trend for the future will be less secrecy concerning the inner workings of the church. With the magic of the media we have entered the global information society. Our culture demands access to all facts and figures. In our modern society, a church obsessed with secrecy will appear increasingly quaint, a remnant of a bygone era. Besides, shared decision making will simply require sharing all available data. Participation in the decision-making process will be essential to win the cooperation of those who will be expected to implement the decision. Besides, even the simplest member of the people of God may have part of the wisdom needed to discern God's will. St Benedict, in chapter 3 or his rule, advised his abbots to consult even the youngest members of the monastery before making an important decision, because these to could help discover God's holy will."

W J Rademacher, "Lay Ministry" p235 (St Paul Publications, 1991).