The Woodstock Theological Center has sponsored a series of studies of issues of special interest to the Catholic Church. Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church, by Thomas J. Reese, S.J., (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996) describes the governance of the church on the international level. Father Reese also led two symposia that brought together leading North American experts to discuss and write about two important initiatives of the Vatican. The first symposium analyzed and critiqued the instrumentum laboris prepared in the Vatican on the theological and canonical status of episcopal conferences. This resulted in a book edited by Father Reese, Episcopal Conferences: Historical, Canonical, and Theological Studies (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1989). The second symposium examined the first draft of The Catechism of the Catholic Church and also resulted in a book edited by Father Reese, The Universal Catechism Reader: Reflections and Responses (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1990). These books may be ordered from the Woodstock Theological Center. For information about ordering Woodstock publications, click here. Father Reese has also written extensively in America on the role of Vatican and the papacy in the life of the Catholic Church: Synod for America, part 1, December 13, 1997 Synod for America Ends, part 2, January 3, 1998 Revolution in Papal Elections, April 13, 1996 Of Cardinals and Conclaves, November 19, 1994 The African Synod: You Had to Be There, part 2, June 4, 1994 The Synod on the Church in Africa, part 1, May 14, 1994 The Laghi Legacy, June 23, 1990 Report on Archbishops' Meeting with Pope, March 25, 1989 Report prior to Archbishops' Meeting with Pope, March 4, 1989 Archbishop Lefebvre: Moving toward Schism? June 4, 1988 Quinquennial Dialogue, April 30, 1988 Selection of Bishops, August 18-25, 1984 See also: The Woodstock Church Studies page Briefing on the Condition of Christians in the Holy Land and the Future of Jerusalem, by Drew Christiansen, S.J. Abrazos: The Synod for America and Hemispheric Solidarity, by Drew Christiansen, S.J. The Catholic Church in the U.S.A. (articles on the NCCB will often have information on the relationship of the U.S. church to the Vatican). Synod of Bishops for America: Toward the Third Millennium, Margaret E. Crahan, Roberto S. Goizueta, the Most Reverend Oscar H. Lipscomb and Thomas J. Reese, S.J., Woodstock Report, December 1997, no. 52 The Church in the Modern World: A 30-Year Perspective, Kenneth R. Himes, O.F.M., Bishop James W. Malone, and Monika K. Hellwig, Woodstock Report, June 1995, no. 42 John Courtney Murray, S.J., and Religious Pluralism, J. Leon Hooper, S.J., Os Guinness, and Michael J. Perry, Woodstock Report, March 1993, no. 33 Tribute to John Courtney Murray, S.J., by Walter J. Burghardt, S.J., Woodstock Report, December 1992, no. 32 Religion in the Former Soviet Republics, James H. Billington, Thomas E. Bird, John H. Erickson, and Father Victor Potapov, Woodstock Report, October 1992, no. 31 Vatican Accepts Woodstock Recommendations, Woodstock Report, March 1991, no. 25 Vatican Web Page