The Roman Catholic Church is seen as traveling down the same road from gemeinschaft to gesellschaft as the rest of Western society has traveled, but in recent years at a very rapid pace. It is suggested that Catholic sociologists can contribute to the Church's self-awareness of the meaning of this pilgrimage while, at the same time, broadening the general sociological understanding of growth and change in formal organizations. In addition, the Catholic sociologists can play an important role in the evaluation of the neo-gemeinschaft community which seems to represent one of the major directions that modern society is taking.