Inside
NCR A
time for NCR to give thanks, for Call to Action to take stock
When I announced an aching back some weeks ago -- an excuse for
not doing my job at the time -- many readers graciously offered sympathy by
mail or phone. Im sure the others wont mind if I mention only one
by name, Padre Edwin Trimbur who wrote from Juarez, Mexico: Permit me to
recommend a way to alleviate pains in the back. I am an old man of 73 years (46
years a priest). I have pains in the back occasionally and I lie in my bath tub
with hot water and the pain goes away.
I wish to thank them one and all at this late date.
Thanksgiving Day will be over as you read this, but it is still
approaching as I write. And in any case it is never too late for thanks, which
should expand and explode and spread far beyond the token Thanksgiving Day to
glorious Christmas and beyond again.
We at NCR thank our readers for reading, our subscribers
for subscribing, and the loyal band of enthusiasts who endlessly tell anyone
who will listen that NCR is worth reading in a church still worth loving
and challenging because that old church is us.
I personally wish to thank the NCR staff, their names, as
we say, too numerous to mention: here in the newsroom and around the world,
editors, writers, designers, support staff, those making their contribution now
and those who went before -- Im getting carried away -- people of
goodwill and cheerfulness, of talent and tenacity and integrity. Until someone
finds a better word, I think its not inappropriate to speak of an
NCR family.
Astronomers and others continue to remind us how small and fragile
a sphere we are hurtling on through space. But how lucky we are, when one
considers the odds, to be on board, to be alive, to be going somewhere. And how
lucky that we here and you readers out there should have met like this.
Theres much to be grateful for. Thanks.
Call to Action, the loose-knit but lively organization so bent on
holding episcopal feet to the post-Vatican II fire (story, page 5), was, in a
surprise move, primarily the brainchild of the bishops themselves.
CTAs tentative beginnings go back to the 1970s. It had
followed a twisting path, from its conception several years ago as a
bicentennial consultation of the faithful through regional hearings, parish
discussions and a three-day meeting attended by 1,300 delegates last October in
Detroit, NCR reported May 13, 1977.
Those were the halcyon days. CTA wanted ordination of women,
married priests, the primacy of conscience with regard to birth control, a
national arbitration board to control the bishops, civil rights for gays. A
familiar agenda.
The bishops, however, were quick to grab hold of this amorphous
energy. First Detroits Cardinal John Dearden and then Cincinnati
Archbishop Joseph Bernardin were enjoined to tame and guide the project.
Came the bishops spring meeting in 1977. Reported
NCR: The disappointment came from the bishops unequivocal
reiteration of their teaching authority. Cardinal John Krol was overheard
venting the growing episcopal suspicion that rebels were taking
over.
Little moves were made, including a five-year plan for social
justice and an episcopal secretariat for the laity.
After that the air soon went out of the movement and the church
went back to what was considered normal. But CTA rose again from the ashes in
1990 in the Chicago area where it had never quite died. The numbers have grown.
Most of the bishops are keeping a safe distance -- except perhaps
Lincolns Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz, who, by excommunicating all members in
his diocese, seems to have confirmed the view that CTA must be doing something
right.
Is Call to Action a dying groan of the Vatican II church or a
well-timed pentecost launching a new millennium? Not entirely either, no doubt.
As a sign of the times, though, and as our story hints, its still raising
more questions than providing answers.
National Catholic Reporter, December 5,
1997
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