A Review of Varacalli, Dr. Joseph. Bright Promise, Failed Community:
             Catholics and the American Public Order. 200.
             It is interesting to read the 2000 text of Catholic scholar Dr.
             Joseph Varacalli's Bright Promise, Failed Community in the wake of the
             recent controversies that have swept the nation regarding Catholic
             politicians, such as the doctrinal Catholic criticism of the pro-choice
             liberal Democratic Senator and probable contender for the presidency John
             Kerry, and the decision of New Jersey governor McGreevey not to take
             communion, because of the latter's support of stem cell research. In both
             examples, rather than the diversity of American Catholicism, the author
             sees evidence of a lack of community cohesion and thus a potential unified
             voice lost to the American political culture.
             Joseph Varacalli believes that Catholic America has essentially failed
             to shape the American Republic in any significant way and that America
             remains an essentially Protestant nation. "Catholic America," he writes,
             "has conformed rather than challenged" the current American Protestant and
             secular system of ethics. (13) He would also attribute even the recent
             controversies to the ineffective and dissent-ridden set of organizational
             arrangements of American Catholic organizations that focus more on
             different doctrine rather than creating a community with a singular social
             program of compassionate Catholic change.
             Varacalli is hardly a social liberal in the sense that he supports for
             the most part the Catholic Church's position on abortion and pre-marital
             sex. But he also believes the church has an important role to play in
             aiding Americans in need. Catholics have a vital role to play in shaping
             the nation's moral and also its social and compassionate life. But the
             author believes that American society has never experienced such a positive
             Catholic moment' because, unlike for exa...