text: I am unsure how you are using the term "liberalism" here, Christopher, although it smacks of a typical right-wing blame game that has no basis in fact, at least that is the way I assume you are using it.  Liberalism brings its qualities of openness, risk-taking, experimentation of new models without the usual conservative cautiousness, of listening and of discussion, and of the sharing of power.  It causes friction with the more controlling, rule-oriented, structured, cautious,  closed-system conservatism.  This is true not just in religion, but in every area of human endeavor.  Every single institution in the developed world (and we are now seeing it in developing countries as well) has gone through the same period of reorientation and renewal as the Catholic Church has. Societies great and small have changed and the cultural shifts are considerable.  Many have shed the shackles of control and oppression.  And blind obedience to a religion is what creates decay, often in dark places.