Call to Action

When I first began the formal process of conversion into the Catholic Church I encountered many members of the Call to Action generation who seemed to be well represented in the parish into which I was baptized.

Their perspective on the Church was infused within the parish Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) to the extent that my sponsor informed me that abortion was not dogmatic Catholic teaching and that he supported the right of women to choose.

It took awhile for me to study my way into alignment with the teaching of the Church, and as I explored the catechism and the papal encyclicals I learned, in addition to the eternal teaching of the Church, how important it is to do your own study and to ensure the core of that study emanates from the Vatican.

This article from Catholic World reveals the tragic direction taken by too many religious and laity who have become attached to the dissenting Call to Action approach to the Church rather than to the eternal truth from the Holy See.

An excerpt.

“Claiming that they are attempting to address the “serious deterioration of the US Church today,” organizers of a new Catholic reform organization are planning a national conclave in 2011 called the American Catholic Council. In what is being billed as a kind of off-site Vatican Council, the proposed gathering promises “thoughtful discussion” of scholarly papers and presentations by Catholic theologians, scholars, and activists—all directed toward the goal of creating a new Church that is “fully in tune with the authentic Gospel message.”

“Promising that the American Catholic Council will “recapture the universal call to ministry,” organizers claim to have launched the call for the national council in an effort to create a more responsive, accountable Church that “calls on the active participation of its people and more closely models the American experience.”

“Although council leaders have denied that they are attempting to create their own church, the American Catholic Council website states their mission clearly: “We seek nothing short of a personal conversion of all to create a new Church.” And, while the organizers of the proposed council have appropriated the language and trappings of an authentic Catholic council, the reality is that the American Catholic Council will be conducted entirely outside the purview of the Church, flouting canon law, and ignoring input from current Church leaders.

“Commemorating the 50th anniversary of what organizers view as the “unfulfilled promise” of the Second Vatican Council, the American Catholic Council is scheduled to be held in Detroit in the fall of 2011. Detroit was selected because it was the site of the 1976 Call to Action Conference—a conference that Joseph Bottum, editor of First Things, has described as the “low point in post-Vatican II American Catholic unity.” Bottum recalled that the 1976 conference began by calling upon the Church to fight “chronic racism, sexism, militarism, and poverty in modern society.” But, by the conclusion of the conference, Call to Action participants demanded that the Church change its positions on celibacy, male clergy, homosexuality, birth control, and Communion for the divorced and remarried—with further decisions to be made by majority votes of laypeople.”