Communication has become an important theme and heuristic concept in practical theology for
Roman Catholics during the ecumenical age. Communication Habits for the Pilgrim Church explains
why the moral order is given priority in Vatican teaching about communication and the reasons
for Catholic social teaching to make moral judgments about these new realities. Attention is
given in the book to the historical context of Vatican Councils I and II. The first chapter
shows that behind the pilgrim Church lies an emerging vision of the threefold ecclesial offices
of priest prophet and king. Chapter two examines the text and context of the Second Vatican
Council's pastoral decree «Inter Mirifica». Chapter three provides a documented history of the
Vatican's Pontifical Council for Social Communication and its teachings. In chapter four we
return to the threefold office and examine the contribution of Pope John Paul II. It includes
an analysis of how the politics of the Magisterium shapes Catholic social teaching. Chapter
five develops major tenets of a critical analysis of the communication of the post-Vatican II
Church: attention is given to the discursive aspects of religious authority argumentation
bureaucratization and market culture. Chapter six takes a step toward examining the pragmatics
of contemporary Vatican teaching. For Roman Catholic moral theology religious ethics is now
deeply concerned with providing moral teaching and guidance on ethical questions raised by the
social conditions of globalization and media communication. Communication Habits for the
Pilgrim Church concludes that there are three basic sociological and theological aspects of the
pilgrim Church. These include a ritual approach to religious communication the generational
experience of Catholics and their respective attitudes toward Church teaching and the
important link in the faith's praxis between reflexivity and forming habits of communication.
