Report from our National Team in Ireland

Report on Meeting with We Are Church Ireland, 

Dublin, 29 July 2013

 The core group of WAC Ireland invited Francoise and myself for lunch at the home of Phil Dunne to meet them and exchange news. The lunch went on for four hours, and was a veritable feast. Phil and Brendan Butler are both IMWAC Council members. The other four members are: Dairne McHenry, Jackie Nelson, Finbarr Quigley and Jerry McCarthy. This core group, consisting of 3 women and 3 men, is like an executive committee. WAC Ireland has about 300 members, most of whom are in Dublin. Meetings are held only in Dublin, and are monthly meetings which are open to the public. They were impressed by the fact that we have 3 regional groups, but as we said, distances in South Africa are much larger, and we have many more big cities than Ireland. The core group like our name.

They meet in a hall in a Jesuit facility, for which they have to pay. They couldn’t believe that our Archbishop has forbidden us to meet on Catholic property or that I was prevented from practising as a Minister of the Eucharist. They don’t usually have a speaker at their meetings, except at their AGM, so the core group proposes topics to help keep meetings focussed. They thought that our public lectures were an excellent idea for spreading the word and for recruiting members. They also have a spiritual and liturgical component, so they will have prayers, readings and hymns. Recently they organised a liturgical celebration in a hotel (to make it more accessible) and many members of the ‘public’ attended and enjoyed it. They thought that our annual retreats were something they might like to try. Most of their members are older people. They were impressed with our idea of holding our next meeting at the University chaplaincy and will think about doing something similar. The question of having a social justice component has been raised, but generally the feeling has been that they should stick to their core business.

The core group are most impressed that we are in discussion with our bishops’ conference. They don’t have much personal contact with their bishops. Once, when they wanted to hand the bishop a petition, he refused to meet with them. They work fairly closely with the Association of Catholic Priests in Ireland, many of whose members share the same aspirations and concerns. Some of the WAC Ireland members are involved with women’s ordination groups. A new movement was started in Ireland recently called The Association of Irish Catholics. They are less ‘radical’ than WAC Ireland, but are affiliated to the Association of Catholic Priests of Ireland.

We are Church Ireland began in 1997 but was re-launched in 2011. They have drawn up “Principles of Organisation” and have an AGM, with audited accounts etc. Read more about them on their impressive website and see why we need to have such a website asap: www.wearechurchireland.ie

Our discussion with the Irish core group was lively and inspiring. As we all said at the end of the afternoon, it is amazing how alike we all think, despite the fact that we come from different cultures and different continents. The Holy Spirit is truly at work all over the world to reform our Church. On parting the group gave us a copy of the alternative Last Supper painting which is on their website!

Brian and Francoise Robertson

Testimony

The latest article from a giant in the field of clerical paedophilia in our Church

THIRTY YEARS: WHAT WE’VE LEARNED AND WHAT I’VE LEARNED

Thomas Doyle, J.C.D., C.A.D.C.
July 27, 2013

__________________________________________________________

This year marks the end of the third decade of the contemporary chapter in the Catholic Church’s age-old reality of sexual violation of clerics. In 1983 Jeff Anderson filed the historic case in Minnesota that would launch him on his life-long vocation of bringing not only civil but human rights to the Church’s countless victims. That summer, the bizarre saga of Gilbert Gauthe was exposed to the light in Lafayette, Louisiana.

This nightmare did not begin in Boston in January 2002, as many erroneously believe. It did not begin in 1983 either. It has been a toxic virus in the Body of Christ since the very beginning. The Didache, a handbook for the earliest followers of Christ, written before the end of the first century, explicitly condemns men who sexually abuse boys. There were no “clerics” as such then so the “men” included the leaders or elders of the infant Church.

The Louisiana spectacle generally gets the credit for being the beginning of public awareness of the so-called “crisis.” I daresay though that had Jason Berry lived in Minneapolis and not New Orleans, things might have been different. Either way you look at it, Jeff in Minnesota and Ray Mouton in Louisiana opened a new era for the Catholic Church and in doing so, changed the course of its history.

When I first became involved with the Gauthe case in 1984 I still believed in the Church. I thought the institutional structure I was part of, and the People of God described by the Second Vatican Council, were one and the same. In spite of already having served three years on the inside at the Vatican Embassy I still had some confidence in bishops and shared the hope with my colleagues at the time, Mike Peterson and Ray Mouton, that once the bishops became aware of how terrible sexual abuse of a child could be and the potential for scandal of epic proportions, they would quickly step up to the plate and do the right thing, especially by the victims.

I was dead wrong. Any lingering hopes I may have had were demolished by my experiences in the years that followed. I had no idea back then of the extent of the problem but more important, and worse, I had no idea just how duplicitous and destructive the bishops could be.

Back in 1985 the transformation of the Catholic Church back to a medieval monarchy was underway but not yet in high gear. There were still some good men holding down the office of bishop, most of them remnants from the Vatican II era of hope. John Paul II, soon to be canonized, set about changing the Church by appointing men as bishops who had replaced pastoral compassion with unthinking obsession with orthodoxy that was for most, a thin cover for soaring ambition and lust for power. The unified game-plan for confronting the “nuisance of pedophilia” as one bishop (A.J. Quinn, Cleveland) referred to it, was not so obvious in the first years of this era, but it certainly is now.

The Church’s response is actually the response of the governing elite, the hierarchy, not the community of the faithful. It has been and continues to be shaped by a small number of celibate males, most of them bishops and above, none of whom have ever had any experience of parenthood and all who live in a monarchy significantly isolated from the real world.

I don’t think any of us who were around thirty years ago had any idea where this odyssey would take us. Above all, we had no idea that the stubbornness, shock, conviction, anger, compassion, desolation, fatigue, disappointment and courage that we have all felt at one time or another, would propel the disparate and sometimes unlikely allies in this hellish drama to bring about profound changes in the Catholic Church and in our society.

We have discovered things that have shocked and stunned us that thirty years ago were well outside most people’s imagination.

1. We have learned that it's not “over” simply because the bishops say it is, and it won’t be over as long as the culture and institution that enabled the systemic sexual violation remains as it is.

2. We have learned that the presenting issue is the sexual violation of children, adolescents and vulnerable adults by clerics of all ranks, from deacons to Cardinals, but that the most outrageous aspect of the scandal has been and continues to be the toxic response by the hierarchy.

3. We have learned that both the Church and secular society had to be forced to look at child sexual abuse straight on and reluctantly accept the reality that it is a profound and lasting violation of a person’s body, mind and soul and to accept the harsh truth that violated children and adults have regularly been ignored.

4. We have learned that the toxic and even vicious response of the hierarchy and clergy is deeply embedded in the clerical culture.

5. We have learned that the root cause of the scandal has been the cover up by the hierarchy and not forces extrinsic to the institutional church such as an anti-Catholic media, a sexualized culture or a materialistic society.

6. We have learned that there is a monstrous chasm between the authentic Christian response expected of the institutional Church and the actual experience of victims and their families.

7. We have learned that the exposure of widespread sexual abuse by clerics has brought irreversible changes to the relationship between the Church and secular society.

8. We have learned that John Paul II cared little or nothing for the victims of his priests and bishops but was instead concerned with protecting bishops, preserving the image of the priesthood and finding a focus for blame anywhere but in the institutional Church.

9. We have learned that the clerical elite that runs the institutional Church is abysmally ignorant of the complex nature of human sexuality and therefore of the devastating effects of sexual violation on all levels of personhood.

10. We have learned that the exposure of widespread sexual abuse at all levels of the institutional Church has triggered the exposure of corruption in other areas such as finance and a demand for accountability.

11. We have learned that today’s bishops have a severely limited and deficient understanding of pastoral care.

12. We have learned that the last two popes and the hierarchy have a seriously twisted notion of right and wrong whereby they protect or excuse clerics who violate children but persecute and punish sincere, faith-filled men and women who seek new and more effective ways to bring the Christian message to people in our twenty-first century culture.

13. We have learned that victims who present themselves to Church authorities in a docile, deferential and non-demanding manner……who play nice…… will be tolerated but those who stand on an even level with the bishops and demand true justice will be treated as the enemy.

14. We have learned that the Church’s leaders from the papacy on down have grossly underestimated the impact their action and inaction would have and the mortal blow this would deal their credibility.

15. We have learned that some of the most morally compromised people in our society are lawyers who represent Church entities in sex abuse litigation.

16. We have learned that the clerical subculture than runs the institutional Church is fed by a highly malignant, narcissistic spirituality that requires a docile, controlled and compliant laity to survive.

17. We have learned that the passive-dependent relationship of the laity to the clergy, centered on sacramental rituals, has in general prevented little more than a passive, muted response from far too many “devoted” Catholics.

18. We have learned that the strident defense of the institutional Church is grounded in either an ignorance of the authentic meaning of “Church” as the People of God or worse yet, an arrogant rejection of it.

19. We have learned that blind orthodoxy has replaced courageous charity as the main focus of the papacy and hierarchy in our era. Those who profess their staunch but limited orthodoxy and total loyalty to the pope and magisterium are concerned for their emotional security at the expense of charity towards victims.

20. We have learned that the Church has in fact, responded to the victims with charity and support in their demand for justice, but it is not the hierarchy but rather the fundamental Church, the People of God.

__________________________________________________________

The sex abuse phenomenon has affected peoples' lives in a variety of ways. It has had a profound impact on my own life on several levels. Most of the impact has been from what I have learned about the institution and its leaders and from my experiences trying to help and support survivors.

1. I have learned that the sage advice I was given in 1972 by a distinguished priest who had been a peritus at Vatican II, who said “with bishops yes and no are interchangeable terms,” is true.

2. I have learned that it is dangerous and naïve to place complete, unquestioning trust in the words and actions of the hierarchy.

3. I have learned that the Vatican bureaucracy and the hierarchy are, for the most part, driven by fear.

4. I have learned that the ontological change that supposedly happens at ordination to the priesthood is a myth that is sustained only to try to support and enhance clerical power.

5. I have learned that constant, obsessive and unchecked anger towards the institutional church, the bishops and the papacy is not only debilitating but also self-destructive.

6. I have learned that as long as I allowed my anger to dominate my emotions, the toxic and dark side of the Church still controlled me.

7. I have learned that I needed to challenge and question every aspect of the institutional Church that I took for granted or believed without reservation, and that to gain a healthy spirituality I needed the freedom to embrace a higher power of my understanding and to reject that which was grounded in fear or made no sense to me.

8. I have learned that the institutional Church, its bishops, priests and unquestioning followers are not the enemy. The enemy is a destructive, heretical and anti-Christian virus called clericalism.

9. I have learned that bottomless pits of money unjustly expropriated from the faithful, legions of lawyers, volumes of empty excuses and seemingly endless public relations verbiage are, in the end, no match for truth.

AN EPIC SHIFT

The contemporary history of sexual violation by Catholic clergy has not had a straight-line trajectory from 1983 to the present. It has been a zig-zag pattern influenced by various factors including the quality of the victims’ interactions with Church officials, the evolution of the response of the secular legal system, developments in the understanding of the range of effects of sexual violation and on the reasons why people abuse. These factors also include the quality of coverage by the secular media and the general recognition of the validity of the victims’ stories.

A crucial factor has been the fact that much of the evolution has been carried out in the arena of the civil law. In the beginning victims and their families approached Church officials for assistance and for support. They were almost universally disappointed and in their frustration they turned to the civil courts for validation and accountability. The basic demand made by victims and their families was recognition and belief and that the cleric-perpetrator be dealt with by the Church so that he could never harm another child. In the civil courts the Church was confronted with a power greater than itself.

Prior to 1983 the secular press gave no priority to the few cases of sexual molestation by priests that became known. For example, the story of the trial and conviction of a priest for rape in a southwestern diocese was limited to a short paragraph, buried in the back pages of the local newspaper. That all changed with the revelations of abuse and systemic cover-up in Lafayette LA in 1983. Since then the media has slowly but surely shaken its deference to the institutional Church and has reported cases with increasing detail and with editorial support of the victims.

Once it became clear to the hierarchy in the U.S. that they could no longer avoid publicity and control the victims, the relationship with victims and their supporters became adversarial. In the early years of this era if the victims acquiesced to the bishops and remained silent and graciously accepted whatever small monetary settlements were offered as well as the assurances that “father will be taken care of” the relationship remained uneven with the victims clearly in a subordinate and controlled position.

That quickly changed when victims realized, after presuming complete sincerity, that they were being lied to by the very men they were taught to believe would be the source of help. Once the victims challenged the bishops and religious superiors both in private and openly, things began to change. When the victims approached the civil legal system in rapidly increasing numbers, the sides were hardened.

From the late eighties to the present the relationship in general between victims and the institutional Church has been highly adversarial. Part of this is due to the understandable negative reaction of victims and survivors to the institutional Church and to all of its symbolism and control. Most of this is due to lived experience. They have learned that as long as they play by the bishops’ rules without question of confrontation, the illusion of pastoral caring will remain.

Over the decades popes and bishops have made countless public expressions of regret for the abuse issue and have offered apologies to the victims. The apologies generally take the form of “I’m so sorry for the pain you have felt” or something along those lines. While the individual bishops, bishops’ conferences and the popes are expressing their regret and their commitment to helping victims, they are at the same time viciously attacking them in the civil courts, spending hundreds of millions of dollars to defend themselves and to destroy victims’ credibility. They profess they have committed themselves to making the Church safe for all children and vulnerable adults but only on their terms. All changes made by Church institutions such as background checks, training, review boards and victims’ assistance coordinators have been forced on the bishops. The attempts to change civil laws to make them more favorable to victims have been vigorously opposed, generally by one group only, the Roman Catholic Church.

Their lack of credibility is hardened when some bishops, in spite of their zero tolerance policy, continue to put credibly accused clergy in ministry or cover for suspected clergy doing all they can to thwart any type of effective investigation.

Pope John Paul II ignored victims and openly sympathized with bishops and priests. In the years that intervened between his first known direct awareness of the serious nature of the problem in 1984 and his death in 2005, he never acknowledged much less responded to even one of the thousands of letters and pleas made by victims of sexual abuse. Requests for audiences were simply ignored with no response. At the regular world youth gatherings, the pope met with representatives of all manner of youth groups, but never the victims of his own priests.

So, it is not difficult to understand why the lines are hardened and why trust simply does not exist even in minimal form. When the bishops created the National Review Board in 2002 they populated it with what they believed to be “safe” people. The first board had a victim as a member for one term but there have been none since. They also seriously underestimated the integrity of several of the initial members. Since then they guaranteed the NRB’s irrelevance by selecting members who would not rock the boat or venture to far into the minefield in search of truth. They sponsored the John Jay College’s second study, Causes and Context, but by controlling the focus of the study and the areas of research they made sure it would contribute nothing to the search for the real reasons why this epidemic has flourished.

In the first years after the Boston revelations in 2002, when the landscape dramatically shifted, I made several attempts to engage two bishops who were members of their sexual abuse committee. I wanted to open up lines of real communication and pave the way so that bishops could begin to know victims and thereby gain a true understanding of just how horrific a problem lay before them. I had several polite conversations but every planned meeting was cancelled due to “unforeseen circumstances”. I knew of course that bishops are very busy men and I should have known that understanding sex abuse victims was not part of their agenda.

As the lawsuits continued to expose the systemic nature of the cover-up and deception, and as they prompted more and more victims to come forward, it became obvious that the bishops’ overall strategy had nothing to do with pastoral care or getting to the systemic reasons for the abuse epidemic. Rather, their focus was defeating the victims in court and defeating any attempts at legislative change that would mean more to accountability. The rank hypocrisy was too obvious to miss.

There is no reason to think the landscape will change in the near future. There are stories of bishops who have shown compassion for victims but these are exceptions and certainly not the norm. On the other hand the only bishop in the United States, Tom Gumbleton of Detroit, to stand publicly with the victims was removed from his post by the Vatican only weeks after his first public witness. The excuse given in the letter from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Bishops said that he had “broken communio with his brother bishops.” That short phrase explains the strategy of the institutional Church. Protect the bishops at all cost even at the expense of the innocent boys and girls whose souls were demolished by the clergy.

Tom Gumbleton’s alignment with the victims was remarkable in that he was and remains the only bishop in the United States to publicly choose victims over the protection of the governing structure. His witness is both profoundly important because of what it symbolizes, and at the same time powerfully disappointing because he was not publicly supported by or joined by even one of the other 450 bishops in the United States.

The real beginning of what hopefully will be an epic shift came in 2003 when Bishop Geoff Robinson (Sydney, Australia) publicly criticized Pope John Paul II’s lack of leadership in the abuse crisis. In 2004 he retired from his position as auxiliary bishop of Sydney “for reasons of health,” an obvious euphemism. Like Tom Gumbleton, he was fired because he “broke communion” with the bishops but he, like Tom, did something that was far more important and far more in keeping with the mandate given them by Christ: he joined “in communio” with the men and women whom the Church’s priests and bishops had violated and whose trust they had mocked and betrayed.

Geoff published a remarkable book in 2007. Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church (Garrett, 2007) looked deeply into the two key areas that have driven the sex abuse phenomenon from being an isolated crisis to a part of a toxic culture. His witness is remarkable because he publicly challenged the two main supports for the toxic clerical culture. He has continued his public witness through speaking tours, especially here in the U.S. In coming here he refused to be intimidated by the Vatican or by the bishops of every diocese where he spoke, all of whom told him to abandon the tour and prevented him from speaking in any Catholic venue.
Most recently he has been joined by two other bishops, Pat Power, auxiliary bishop of Canberra and William Morris who was removed as bishop of Toowoomba for suggesting the Church think about ordaining women. Together they have circulated a petition worldwide asking for a new general council to try and bring about the deep structural and ideological changes needs to truly confront the evil of sexual abuse. In conjunction with the petition, Geoff has published another incredible book, For Christ’s Sake: End Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church for Good (Garrett, 2013).

Catholics have asked why the priests have not spoken up. The common answer is fear. But that fear has been broken by the creation of a “Whistleblowers Forum” of priests and religious women, active and retired, who have banded together to speak out, support one another and openly challenge the ecclesiastical system.

What I believe is a unique and revolutionary step has been the decision by the Capuchin Franciscan Friars of the St. Joseph Province (Detroit) to conduct a complete audit of their files and a review of the way their province has responded to reports of sexual abuse by its members. The bishops have patted themselves on the back for their annual “Audits” every year but these are no more than self-evaluations with the same degree of integrity and credibility one would find in the Wall street financial institutions if they conducted their own in-house financial audits and volunteered to the IRS how much they thought they should pay in taxes.
The provincial, Fr. John Celichowski, took a major risk in starting the process because he knew it would open the province to complete exposure. He took another major risk…when he asked me to be part of the audit-review team.

We worked together for over a year and produced the most complete report of its kind anywhere. Furthermore this was the only ecclesiastical entity, diocese or religious order, in the world to open itself up to an outside study of how each and every report of sexual abuse had been handled and then to make results available to the public.

The Capuchin venture is historic and a fundamental move in a positive direction because it is not the enterprise of an individual standing independent of the ecclesiastical world, outside the gates of the monarchy, but that of an official body that is an integral part of the institutional Church. Where will this epic shift lead? We hope it will prompt other religious communities to give serious consideration to opening themselves to a similar, completely independent review. My personal hope is that this momentous move may somehow prompt bishops to begin to see that there is only one truly authentic Christian response for the institutional Church and that is to honestly acknowledge the unchristian way victims have been treated and to reach out to those who have been harmed and offer honest compassion. Nothing short of this will help the institutional Church find its way back to the community of Christ, the People of God.

July 27, 2013

• Holds a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from the Aquinas Institute of Philosophy in Illinois granted in 1966. 
• Holds a Masters of Arts in Philosophy from the Aquinas Institute of Philosophy in 1968. 
• He was granted two Masters of Arts in 1971 from the University of Wisconsin in Political Science and another in theology from Aquinas Institute of Theology. 
• Holds a Masters of Church Administration from Catholic University of America granted in 1976. 
• Holds a Masters of Arts in Canon Law from the University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario granted in 1977. 
• He has a Pontifical Licentiate in Canon Law from St. Paul University in Ottawa, Canada granted in 1977.
• Holds a Pontifical Doctorate in Canon Law from Catholic University of America granted in 1978. The Pontifical doctorate is the highest degree available under Canon Law. 
• He is also a fully certified addictions counselor, having trained at the Naval School of Health Sciences in San Diego and the University of Oklahoma at Norman, Oklahoma.

Reconstitution, Restitution and Revitalization

The following from IMWAC English List:

A MODEST PROPOSITION… 

by Fr. Gerry Auger

The Church needs a Constitution 
To guarantee protection 
For every Catholic theologian 
Dreading incrimination 
For speaking with elucidation 
On matters of interpretation. 

The Office of Indoctrination 
Is threatening excommunication 
To people of articulation 
Without any preoccupation 
For increasing polarization 
Among Catholics of every nation. 

This causes much frustration 
Among prophets of liberation 
Who honor their true vocation 
With no intent of desecration 
Of what is good in our Tradition 
For Christians of every persuasion. 

With due respect for Institution 
I recommend modification 
Of rules in the interrogation 
Of any decent theologian 
Who has the inclination 
To valid speculation. 

I hope this kind suggestion 
Will win an approbation 
Without retaliation 
From those whose inclination 
Is rigid manipulation 
With extreme indignation! 

Catholic Labels

Mary Ann Hain maryannhain@comcast.net via yahoogroups.com	3rd July,  2013  4:13 AM

The hierarchy labels Catholics 

who have moved beyond the boundaries
of institutional religion in search of Spiritual growth
Fallen-away Catholics
as if not following the man-made rules and regulations
signifies a loss of faith.

Outrageous!

I asked people for a more appropriate name for us;
Here are some of the responses:
Homeless Catholics, Nomad Catholics,
Catholic Alumni, Exodus Catholics, Liberated Catholics,
Adult Catholics, Non-Attending Catholics,
Un-fearful Catholics, Alienated Catholics
Non-bureaucratic Catholics, Inclusive Catholics
Catholics in Love, Catholics in Exile,
Recovering Catholics, Kinda Catholics,
Liberal Catholics, Raised Catholics, USTA B Catholics
Wandering Catholics, Roamin' Catholics
Disgruntled Catholics, Wayward Catholics
Activist Catholics, Gypsy Catholics
Agitator Catholics, Jesus Catholics
Non-bureaucratic Catholics, Un-hierarchied Catholics
Protesting Catholics, Re-Formed Catholics
Metanoiaed Catholics, Pray, Play, DisObey Catholics
Non-Babel Catholics, Catholics Living in the Real World
Post-medieval Catholics, Un-clericalized Catholics
Freed Catholics, New World Catholics, Rebel Catholics,
Disenfranchised Catholics, Home-Liturgy Catholics
True-Tradition Catholics, Non-Lay Catholics
De-Catechized Catholics, Open-Table Catholics
De-institutionalized Catholics,
De-programmed Catholics, De-culted Catholics
Ecumenical Catholics, catholic Catholics
Christian Catholics
Fundamental Catholics
(as opposed to Catholic fundamentalists)
Un-intimidated Catholics, Illuminated Catholics
Former Catholics, Universe Catholics
Refreshed Catholics, Progressive Catholics
Small-Faith-Group Catholics, Happy liberal Catholics
Discerning Catholics, Thinking Catholics
Emmaus Catholics, John XXIII Catholics
Global Catholics, Welcoming Catholics
Beatitude Catholics, Episcopalians
Call-To-Action Catholics, Pot Luck Catholics,
People of God,
Catholics-with-a-brain-not-afraid-to-use-it,
Thinking Catholics, Catholics Conflicted
The Newly Marginalized Catholics
First-Century Catholics, Run-Away Catholics

Fallen Away? 

Latest Report

IMWAC Report from the United States Church Justice Movement

Prepared by Nicole Sotelo, one of two IMWAC representatives from the United States

Summary

In the United States there are approximately 20 organizations working on church justice issues, ranging from women’s ordination to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality. Representatives of these organizations gather as a forum twice yearly under the banner, Catholic Organizations for Renewal, or COR. Of these organizations, approximately 10 have chosen to affiliate with IMWAC. These IMWAC-affiliated organizations elect two representatives to the IMWAC Council. This year, the representatives are Anthony Padovano and Nicole Sotelo. 

The church justice movement in the United States, as a whole, is strong. Approximately one-third of the organizations that are part of COR have paid staff and receive funding from donors, grants or both. Most operate like any other non-profit organization with staff addressing administration, development, media and programs.

The organizations have separate mission statements and agendas but often will collaborate in both formal and informal coalitions on programmatic aims that overlap. Three recent examples include:

1) The Equally Blessed Coalition is a formal coalition that is comprised of four pro-LGBT Catholic organizations that work together on campaigns and programs to further the cause of LGBT equality in church and civil society;

2) The Nun Justice Coalition is an informal coalition of approximately 10 organizations that came together this summer to support the women religious who were under attack from the Vatican for their justice work or the 

3) Coalition for Liberty and Justice that has been created to address recent legal threats by Bishops against individuals’ rights.

The current climate in the United States church has an increasingly progressive laity with an increasingly conservative hierarchy. More recently the hierarchy has been willing to publicly align itself with conservative politics, particularly on issues of healthcare/reproduction/women’s issues and lgbt concerns. Additionally, there has been a recent concerted effort to unify the bishops’ conservative political priorities under the banner of “religious liberty.”

Despite this, the majority of Catholics in the United States support church justice in its many forms including contraception, women’s ordination, non-mandatory priestly celibacy, affirmation of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality, increased lay participation, etc.

At right is a photo of the COR representatives at one of the bi-annual gatherings.

 

Organizational Updates

Below are a list of organizations and brief reports of their activities who are IMWAC-affiliated within the United States and represented by the two U.S. Representatives to IMWAC. This will impact a glimpse into the work of the U.S. church justice movement over the last two years since IMWAC met.

American Catholic Council

Following its successful gathering of about 2,000 in June, 2011 to celebrate the values and spirit of Vatican II, the American Catholic Council engaged in a careful discernment of what Council attendees were calling for and where the ACC could meet those needs not already addressed by other organizations.

These projects were launched in 2012: 

·        an Institute on Nonviolent Action and Reform of the Institutional Catholic Church

·        structured support of Listening Assemblies to promote the Catholic Bill of Rights and Responsibilities (unanimously acclaimed at the Council)

·        plans to consolidate and expand  online resource data on Intentional Eucharistic Communities

·        full participation in the NunJustice coalition, a sub-committee of COR

·        a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) Analysis of the Vatican and the Catholic Reform Movement

The pilot of the Nonviolent Action Institute, “Changing Power Relationships”, has about two dozen dedicated participants who are studying the works of Dr. Gene Sharp in order to focus on practical, political and strategic methods of Church reform.  The Institute is conducted online for fourteen weeks, with a final in person strategy meeting in Washington, DC in mid-November. 

More information about all ACC activities is available at the website: www.americancatholiccouncil.org.

Call To Action,

Call To Action (CTA) is a national movement of 25,000 Catholics working for church justice including clergy, religious and laity. CTA coordinates an Anti-Racism Team and CTA 20/30, a young adult program.  The organization hosts the largest annual progressive Catholic conference in the country. The JustChurch program is at the center of CTA’s work and focuses on five priorities as outlined below. Additionally, CTA promotes church justice through the press, website, newsletter, email action list and social media. 

Church Worker Justice:

Call To Action assists church workers who come to us for help after they have experienced an injustice in their workplace, usually a church or school. We are able to offer a network of emotional support, civil or canon law resources, and, when appropriate, a public campaign. In the last year, we have initiated a Church Worker Justice Awareness Week and promoted the issue during Labor Day Weekend on social media.

Lay Empowerment:

Among other things, in the last two years we have led a national educational tour regarding the new English language changes in the liturgy, supported a Catholic letter-to-the-editor campaign to speak out in support of contraception and supported a number of cases against clergy sexual abuse.

LGBT Justice:

Together with DignityUSA, New Ways Ministry, and FortunateFamilies, Call To Action is part of the Equally Blessed coalition that raises a Catholic voice for LGBT justice through programming and media. Last year we hosted a rainbow ribbon wearing campaign in churches to raise awareness about violence against lgbt youth and youth suicides. We also coordinated a congressional briefing encouraging lawmakers to vote with their Catholic constituencies who support same-sex marriage versus the bishops who do not.

Racial Justice:

Call To Action has been raising awareness of both racial injustice and racial justice in the church via traditional media with a media release this year and also via social media. CTA’s Anti-Racism Team holds trainings to promote better understanding of racial injustice in the church today.

Women and Girls Equality:

Last year, we held the largest rally for altar girls in Virginia, a diocese that has not implemented altar girls across its parishes. As a member of the Nun Justice Coalition, we were part of a delegation that delivered a petition with 57,000 signatures on it to the US Bishops’ meeting in Atlanta, GA this June in support of the sisters. The coalition helped Catholics pledge over $100,000 in support of the sisters and helped coordinate over 100 vigils nationwide throughout the summer months. Call To Action co-coordinated a Feminist Catholic Movement Building meeting this summer in which Catholic feminist thought leaders gathered together to assess the state of the movement. We have also been part of the Break the Silence, Shatter the Stained Glass Ceiling project. See Women’s Ordination Conference report below for details.

Catholics for Choice

www.catholicsforchoice.org

In 2012, Catholics for Choice has been out front, educating the media, the public, and policymakers in the US and in countries around the world on issues of Catholics and Contraception, Religious Liberty and Freedom, and Religious Extremism and its influence on SRHR Policies. We have worked with progressive Catholics individuals and organizations, other supportive faith-based groups, and secular allies who support CFC’s work.  We have trained advocates, policymakers and doctors in South America, Europe and the US in successful communications and values clarification with our recently evaluated training programs that have proven results in strengthening commitments to providing abortion and family planning.  Here are a few highlights of CFC’s achievements so far in 2012.

·        CFC developed a strategy to advance our social media presence and engage new activists and supporters.  In early 2012, we increased our Facebook engagement by 435%, garnered more than 30,000 signatures in an online campaign of Catholics who support contraceptive coverage, and engaged new activists interested in supporting our work, with more than 1,000 new individuals signed up to receive CFC email updates and action alerts. CFC communicates daily with nearly 20,000 engaged, progressive grassroots Catholics who support CFC’s mission and work.  Please visit our website  and Facebook pages to be a part of the discussion.

·        Elevating the voices of Catholics, CFC launched the WeHYPERLINK "http://www.catholicsforchoice.org/actioncenter/WetheCatholicPeople.asp" the Catholic People campaign. More than 30,000 people signed the open letter demonstrating the widespread support of people of faith who want access to no-cost contraceptive coverage  and believe that the choice to use contraceptives should be theirs—not the bishops’.

·        CFC co-convened the Global Interfaith and Secular Alliance (GISA) to build an international network of organizations that is well equipped to challenge religious extremism and its opposition to SRHR. Currently including 25 members, representing secular and religious NGOs from across the globe, GISA is working in the international community to promote progressive SRHR reforms and messages that counters dangerous religious fundamentalism. The GISA statement on religious extremism was the first of its kind to be presented at the UN Commission on Population and Development.

·        CFC formed the Coalition for Liberty and Justice. With fifty groups, and co-convened by the National Council of Jewish Women, the Coalition includes leaders from the reproductive health and rights movement, women’s, labor, LGBT, RJ, civil rights, secular and religious organizations, healthcare providers, medical and nursing students, and colleagues from both sides of the political aisle. Through knowledge sharing and building on the unique expertise of Coalition members, the CLJ advances religious liberty and justice that respects individuals, supports the common good and reflects the foundational principles of our nation.

·        For the Rio +20 conference, CFC produced a new briefing paper on the Holy See’s influential but untenable position at the UN. The paper examines the Holy See’s role at the UN (a privileged place no other religion holds) and the disproportionate and negative impact its special status affords it. The briefing paper and a collection of key CFC publications, written by SRHR leaders on topics such as global population growth and opposition research on the Vatican and the Holy See were shared with advocates and member state delegations in advance of and at the conference.

                                               

·        In a speech to Hungarian activists, Jon O’Brien explained Catholic teachings on abortion and the importance in promoting reproductive freedom, especially when challenged by antichoice government policies that restrict access.

·        Challenging the US bishops’ claims that their religious liberty is under attack, CFC set the record straight and widely disseminated a memo that debunked the bishops’ claims and presented helpful messages on true religious liberty and freedom. 

·        CFC’s powerful and popular infographic demonstrated that the broad majority of Catholic women use and support access to comprehensive contraceptive methods. “What Catholics Believe About Birth Control” appeared in newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Cincinnati Enquirer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Tampa Bay-Times, Miami Herald, Denver Post, Minneapolis Star Tribune and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and reached millions more people through Facebook and Twitter.

·        Strengthening the communications skills and advancing dialogue on SRHR issues among advocates, activists, medical providers and policymakers around the globe, this year CFC has trained 200 leaders and organizations in the US and around the world through our highly effective communications and values-clarification workshops.

CORPUS

www.corpus.org

Corpus is a reform Catholic community which was created in 1974.  Its original intent was the acceptance of marriage as an option for ordination to priesthood and the reintegration of resigned married priests into full canonical and pastoral status.  

Corpus had as its mission a dialogue with USA Catholic bishops and solidarity among those who had resigned.  Some 3000 married priests formally joined this endeavor.

In 1988, Corpus became a public reform organization and has held an annual national conference every year since then.  In 1988, Corpus changed its mission to an inclusive priesthood for men and women, celibate or married, without reference to sexual orientation.  

Corpus helped to create in 1992, COR (Catholic Organizations for Renewal), a consortium of national USA reform groups.  

Over the years, Corpus became active in three major national reform organizations:

1) The European Network 

An assembly of some 27 countries working for Church reform in a broad range of areas        throughout Europe and at the European Parliament and its related bodies in Strasbourg;   Americans are accepted as affiliated members.

2)  International Movement: We Are Church

This gathering of lay- initiated organizations  works for comprehensive reform in the spirit of Vatican II.

  

3) International Federation for the Renewal of Catholic Ministry

This international group began in 1986 in Rome as an assembly of world-wide organizations working for an inclusive priesthood.  It has held a dozen large meetings in

 Europe, Latin America and the US at regular intervals.  It now seeks renewal of ministry on all  levels of Catholic life.

Corpus has served the Catholic Church and the reform movement in these areas and with these issues for almost 40 years.

 

DignityUSA

www.dignityusa.org

Along with partners Call To Action, Fortunate Families, and New Ways Ministry, developed Equally Blessed, a coalition of Catholic organizations working for LGBT equality in the Church and society. The group’s focus is on media work to amplify the voice of the majority of Catholics who support LGBT people. The group also sponsored the first Congressional briefing on positive Catholic support for LGBT civil rights.

We have marked the 40^th anniversary of six major Chapters including Los Angeles, Chicago, San Diego, New York, Boston, and Washington, DC.

We have developed a Young Adult Caucus to support greater engagement of Millenials in our movement. Most recently, this group gathered 24 Young Adult Leaders from across the country to meet with the Board of Directors, as well as to strengthen their own network, engage in leadership development activities, and identify what draws them to Dignity. Our Caucus works closely with the 20/30 group of Call To Action.

We co-sponsored (with WATER, the Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual) the first Catholic Lesbians’ retreat held since the mid-1990s, providing a weekend of prayer, reflection, and ritual that proved life-changing for some of the 35 participants.

Our President, Lourdes Rodríguez-Nogués, testified at a Congressional Hearing on Hispanic attitudes about LGBT issues.

We have hired a Program Manager, working in Minnesota where, among other duties, he has helped to organize Catholic faith-sharing programs and other LGBT-supportive activities in advance of this November’s vote on a same-sex marriage ban in the state constitution. He spearheaded a powerful video project (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rCcDke3Mug) which involved people from 40 different parishes, and which has been viewed more than 20,000 times.

We launched a series of interactive web-based conversations about the spirituality of members of our community, Queer Catholic Faith, which provides programming for both Chapters and people living all across the country, as well as internationally. One-third of each session’s participants had never participated in a Dignity event before. (Recordings are available at http://www.dignityusa.org/content/queer-catholic-faith-spring-2012-review )

We developed new guidelines regarding not having anyone preside at our liturgical functions anywhere in the country that has had credible allegations of sexual abuse of minors, and trained all of our chapter leadership on implementing them.

In partnership with the ACLU and the Matthew Shepard Foundation, we won a lawsuit that forced a school district in Missouri to stop censoring LGBT-positive websites—a suit that led to the software provider changing their filtering system in all the school systems they served, and increasing access for tens of thousands of students.

We were a founding member of the Nun Justice organizing team, which sponsored over 100 vigils in support of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), organized a petition that has garnered nearly 60,000 signatures, and offered other support for American nuns charged with being “too focused on the poor and marginalized.”

We led the development of a group of over 30 religious leaders to call for support of SB 1172, a bill recently introduced in the California legislature that would make it illegal to force LGBT minors into reparative therapy. We have also been on the leadership team of coalitions of LGBT religious groups working for immigration reform and to obtain federal legislation that would allow same-sex foster care and adoption of children in all 50 states.

We continue to participate in Catholic Organizations for Renewal, the National Religious Leadership Roundtable, and Women-Church Convergence, all coalitions working for greater justice.

 

FutureChurch

www.futurechurch.org

Changed Vatican Policy about Church closings Working with canon lawyer Sr. Kate Kuenstler PHJC, JCD FutureChurch’s Save Our Parish Community project guided successful parishioner appeals in 28 parishes across the U.S.. According to a Commentary on Vatican Decrees Upholding Cleveland Parishioner Appeals, written by Kuenstler,: “Both the Congregation for Clergy and the Apostolic Signatura now make a clear distinction between the legitimate reasons to merge parishes and legitimate reasons to close a church.” No longer considered legitimate reasons for closing a church are the following:

1.      The shortage of priests

2.      The church is in close proximity to another church.

3.      The church is no longer considered necessary for worship when a parish is suppressed or merged.

4.      The maintenance for a building no longer needed as a church for Divine worship is a financial burden to the parish.

Free canonical resources at futurechurch.org are regularly downloaded by people all over the world.

Activated grassroots network to reach out to US bishops about married priests and women deacons at the time of their ad limina visits. FC’s Open Letter to US. Bishops resulted in over 6,000 signatures asking U.S. Bishops "to embrace your roles as shepherds" and "open dialogue about restoring our early traditions recognizing married and celibate priests and women deacons." Nearly 25 percent of signers agreed to engage their bishop in dialogue resulting in 16 face to face meetings with bishops and diocesan officials and responses from 28 additional dioceses. (outcomes available at futurechurch.org)

Conducting International electronic and paper postcard campaign asking Vatican offices to open discussion of mandatory celibacy and women deacons. (29,000 total signers to date includes some duplicate letters to local bishops). E-Postcard in six languages at futurechurch.org Will be delivered to Vatican March 2013.

Organized over 350 international celebrations of the feast of St. Mary of Magdala each year, including 40+ in 14-16 countries outside the US.

Launched a new Women Deacons’ Why Not Now? initiative including a process to surface candidates to present to the local bishop and essays and prayer services about  women deacons in church history.

Worked with NunJustice coalition to organize nationwide prayerful opposition to Vatican persecution of US women religious.

Women’s Ordination Conference

www.womensordination.org

Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC) founded in 1975, and based in Washington, DC, is the largest national organization that works to ordain women as priests, deacons and bishops into an inclusive and accountable Catholic church.  WOC represents the 63 percent of US Catholics who support women's ordination. WOC also promotes new perspectives on ordination that call for more accountability and less separation between the clergy and laity.

 2011-2012 Highlighted Activities: 

·        Break the Silence, Shatter the Stained Glass Ceiling: In October of 2011, WOC traveled with an international delegation to Rome with Fr. Roy Bourgeois to deliver a petition signed by 15,000 supporters. Our press conference was covered by major outlets including AP, Reuters, CNS, and WOC was quoted in over 2,700 outlets worldwide. The petition was delivered to a high ranking Vatican official during a private meeting with Fr. Roy Bourgeois, and lawyers Therese Korturbosh and Bill Quigley.  Erin Saiz Hanna (WOC Executive Director), Fr. Roy Bourgeois and Miriam Duignan (Housetop International) were detained by Italian police. 

·        World Day of Prayer for Women’s Ordination: Last March, WOC organized a prayer service outside St. Matthew’s Cathedral in downtown Washington, DC during the Chrism Mass, in conjunction with prayer vigils held across the country. 

·        Nun Justice Project: Since April 2012, WOC has served on the steering committee of the Nun Justice Project, a grassroots movement supported by various progressive U.S. Catholic organizations. Our “Support the Sisters” petition garnered over 65,000 signatures, which WOC hand delivered to Sr. Mary Ann Walsh, Communications Officer of the U.S. Bishops in a public press conference. During the meeting, WOC staff spoke with the Papal Nuncio and other bishops about the sisters and women’s ordination; Over $100,000 has been pledged to women religious communities in a Peter’s Pence redirection campaign; Nun Justice Tumblr created to collate vigil information, photographs and videos from vigils held in over 60 cities across the U.S. (www.nunjustice.tumblr.com. Vigil attendance ranged from 10-600 in some cities; WOC met with the leadership of LCWR and received a personal thank you letter for our work, with hopes of continued collaboration. Throughout the Nun Justice Project, Erin and Kate have been filmed for an upcoming documentary on the ministries of women religious

·        On-Going Advocacy: WOC continues to collaborate with many church-justice organizations and is a visible voice for women in the Church. In addition to supporting women at their ordinations, visiting college campuses, and publishing our newsletter, New Women, New Church, WOC was represented at: Call to Action Conference: Milwaukee, WI; New Ways Ministry Conference: Baltimore, MD; Catholic Organizations for Renewal: Arlington, VA; Women-Church Convergence: Minneapolis, MN; Coalition for Liberty and Justice: Washington, DC. 

Submitted by Erin Saiz Hanna, Executive Director, ehanna@womensordination.org