Viewpoint Austrias sacred experiment renews momentum for
change
By DAN and SHEILA DALEY
A kind of sacred experiment
was John Paul IIs blessing upon the Oct. 23-26 Dialogue for Austria, an
official gathering of the Austrian Catholic Church.
The outstanding success of this experiment (NCR, Nov. 6)
reminds us of the U.S. bishops 1976 Call to Action conference in Detroit,
and the spirit of hope it engendered.
The Dialogue for Austria was the culmination of a yearlong process
of consultation that originally excluded internal church issues; Call to Action
was the culmination of a two year process of hearings originally focused on
justice in society. Both meetings, with strong lay participation, ended up
applying principles of justice to the churchs own structures.
Each passed resolutions related to married priests, the ordination
of women, an expanded role for laity, the primacy of conscience in sexual
matters (particularly birth control), a more pastoral approach to homosexuals,
and local participation in the selection of bishops.
Both meetings were convened by the bishops, with delegates mostly
selected by them: sixty-four percent of Call to Action delegates in fact worked
for the church and only 5 percent came from independent national church
organizations. In Austria, Bishop Johann Weber of Graz-Seckau called the
delegates a good mirror of that nations Catholics.
Both meetings had formal participation from freestanding renewal
groups. In fact, our We Are Church cousins in Austria were
OKd by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the churchs top doctrinal
official.
In both cases, controversy swirled around internal church justice,
not societal justice. While waiting to see the Austrian outcome, we can ask
what happened to the mandate that emerged from Detroit.
Detroits Cardinal John Dearden, head of the 1976 Call to
Action program, said he thought the U.S. bishops pastorals in the 1980s
on peace and on economic justice were responses to resolutions passed in
Detroit. The issuance of both pastorals followed wide consultations similar to
the Call to Action process.
Even so, momentum for change inside the church was lost by 1978.
Some officials in the Vatican and the U.S. bishops conference virtually killed
the reform agenda, while allowing some peace and justice issues to go
forward.
Looking back from 1986, noted church historian David OBrien
observed that the bishops are far from being ready to accept the degree
of collaboration involved in the Call to Action, while the need for building
structures of shared responsibility remains clear to all who look.
By 1978 almost all local diocesan Call to Action follow-up groups
were shut down. Only the Chicago group remained, because it began without
Cardinal John Codys blessing (Cody had no time for the whole Call to
Action endeavor).
Can Detroit 1976 or Austria 1998 be recreated in the United States
soon?
We cant predict what the U.S. bishops or the next pope will
do, but we can attest to the irreversible momentum for change. All the surveys
of U.S. Catholics show support for the internal church changes recommended by
Detroit in 1976 and Austria in 1998 by margins of two-thirds or more.
On the grassroots level of parishes and schools, we are moving
toward a lay-led, lay-taught church at warp speed as the crisis triggered by
priest shortages escalates. Laity are taking their baptism seriously and are
aggressively pursuing the education needed for these ministerial roles. For 30
years there has been a blossoming of faith-based organizations working on
peace, poverty, homelessness, the environment and global justice issues with
lay people extensively involved in the work and in financial support. Many
Catholics have taken seriously church social justice teachings.
Many U.S. church renewal groups, such as the Womens
Ordination Conference, CORPUS, Catholics Speak Out, the Association for the
Rights of Catholics in the Church and Call To Action have helped produce a
remarkably cooperative spirit within the U.S. renewal groups and with other
We Are Church groups in 27 countries on 6 continents.
Four hundred and fifty U.S. groups are now listed in the
collaborative national church renewal directory of groups supporting Call To
Actions 1990 Call For Reform -- these include church reform
organizations, peace and justice groups, small faith communities, womens
groups, retreat centers and parish groups.
The strong lay parishioner base of the renewal movement is shown
in a breakdown of the 3,500 attendees at last months Call to Action
annual conference -- two-thirds lay and one-third religious, priests and
bishops; 90 percent regular churchgoers; 70 percent active volunteers in their
parishes; one-third are church employees.
If we take seriously the definition of the church as the people of
God, then we need to look also to the people for the signs of the Spirits
renewing presence, not only to the institutional leadership. Historically,
change in our church has always come from the grassroots. It most likely will
be a long process.
Detroit in 76 and Austria in 98 are significant. They
give greater visibility to the transformation taking place in our midst.
Sheila and Dan Daley are codirectors of Call to Action.
- Call to Action: http://call-to-action.org/
- We Are Church: http://www.we-are-church.org/
National Catholic Reporter, December 11,
1998
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