Nicholas Kristof has written a good Op Ed piece in the April 18, 2010 Wall Street Journal entitled A Church Mary Can Love. He argues that the Vatican has become an "Old Boys" club, just like Lehman Brothers was, and is equally incompetent and out of touch with the real world, lost in defending medieval dogma. But he argues there is another, much larger, much more vibrant Catholic Church out there doing good things in the world - and that is the real Catholic Church.
An interesting view that mirrors what another Catholic friend told me recently.