[Buckeye McFrog]

The Vatican has been moving toward this since the early ‘90s, when it began making use of the internet so that it could make direct contact with the laity

Except that it's all a one-way flow. Can the laity talk back to the hierarchy via the internet? I doubt it, at least not in any meaningful way. (there is only one channel of communications that appears to reach the Pope and the College of Cardinals, and it's through the collection basket)

[RobbyS]

The flow-back has to pass through the bureaucracy of the local and diocesean church and extra-ecclesiastical bodies such the the USCCB. Do you get that the “Spirit of vatican II” was largely an anti-Roman rebellion? The reaction to Humanae Vita meant that a huge segment of the American clergy rejected the authority of the papacy and this was the message they passed on to the laity. But even during the Council I was shocked to hear from the pastor of small church assert that the authority of the priest in early times came not from the bishop but from the congregation. Being from a Protestant background, I knew what was up and quickly excused myself.