The Scarlet River

What if? is a historian's temptation. Roman Catholicism has an estimated membership of 1.3 billion, many millions of whom have not been inside a church in quite a while.

This global institution is served and ruled by a male, celibate, clerical elite. The Scarlet River raises the question: What if the laity, women and men, were given an authoritative voice in the bureaucracy and in the ministries of this ancient faith community?

Tracing three years in the life of one such cleric, we see an alt...