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Grass-roots innovation may help new pope reclaim Europe's churches.

Article Excerpt
Marie-Cecile Augeai does not consider herself a church hopper, but after years of moving around France, the 47-year-old Roman Catholic is an expert of sorts on local parish life.

Since settling in Poitiers last year, Augeai believes she has found her spiritual home--at Saint-Jean de Montierneuf, an 11th-century stone edifice framed by buttercups and daisies, where the congregation largely runs the show.

"There's a sense of warmth and fraternity here," said Augeai, as she sipped cider during a meet-and-greet gathering after Sunday Mass. "One senses an openness. People aren't afraid of tackling difficult questions."

Such religious enthusiasm is hard to find these days in France, a country where priests are in short supply and parishioners fled the churches long ago. Indeed, of all the challenges German-born Pope Benedict XVI faces as he embarks on his papacy, perhaps none is more daunting than reviving Europe's embattled Catholic church.

But in a continent that rejected the mention of Christianity in the new constitution of the European Union, and where scattered governments move to legalize such Vatican taboos as same-sex marriage and the right to die, profound changes are afoot among the dwindling bastions of Catholicism.

That includes changes in this ancient Gallo-Roman city in west-central France, torn apart by bloody religious wars...

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