He vividly brings to life the people and events that have shaped American Catholicism - from JFK and Cardinal Richard Cushing to the Second Vatican Council and the ascendancy of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to the papacy. Catholics and lapsed Catholics alike will recognize their own stories in Carroll's reflections on his religious upbringing and his journey to discover a new Catholic identity. "Practicing Catholic" creates space for the millions of practicing, questioning, or doubting Catholics who are looking for a way to reconcile the acts of Church leaders with the faith and the Church they still want to claim as their own.