Some Dissenters Quit the Church But Don't Stop Being Catholic

She grew up Roman Catholic, but likemillions of others, Rebecca Ortelli came to disagree with churchteachings on contraception, communion and priestly celibacy, amongother things.

Many Catholics drift away from the church or joinother denominations. But Ortelli, 57, wanted to maintain both herCatholic identity and her worldview. And she didn't want to feel onewas inconsistent with the other.

So 20 years ago, she did what a small number of defiant Catholicsare doing. She joined a church with many lifelong Catholics of similarviews, a church that borrows heavily from Catholic rituals even thoughit's not part of a Catholic diocese.

"I don't think I should haveto give up my Catholicism. That's part of who I am. It makes me who Ichoose to be," said Ortelli, whose church, in Nutley, N.J., is calledthe Inclusive Community. "I like some of the rituals that we have.They're important."

At the Inclusive Community, she and herhusband, raised a Lutheran, receive Communion each Sunday from formerCatholic priests who left the church -- and its priestly celibacyrequirement -- to marry.

The Inclusive Community meets in a smallchapel of a Congregational church, has a $16,000 budget, and drawsmaybe 15 people most Sundays. In those ways, it is similar to most"underground" churches, said Kathleen Kautzer, a professor at RegisCollege in Weston, Mass.

It's unclear how many "underground"Catholic churches are in the United States. Most are small, manyunstable. They lack networks and are often unpublicized, so no oneknows whether they are increasing or decreasing in number.

Kautzerestimated that there are 200 and that they probably attract much lessthan 1 percent of the 67 million American Catholics. That is a smallnumber, considering that polls show significant opposition to churchteachings on contraception, abortion, divorce, and priestly celibacy.

Still,in the aftermath of the clergy sex abuse scandal, these churches offera different path from the one taken by most Catholic reformers, whohave sought -- unsuccessfully, so far -- to change church rules andhierarchy.

Most members of underground churches are "reallyliberal people who are divorced, gays and feminists," Kautzer said. Sheadded to the list former priests and former nuns who have married.

"Thereform movement is full of those couples," she said. "Their whole lifewas the church, and they left . . . because they couldn't handle theconservative direction the church was going in. They said, 'Thisinstitution is not going to change in my lifetime, so what else can Ido but to find a faith community where I feel comfortable?' "