Cover
story Visions for the future
By PATRICIA LEFEVERE
Special Report Writer
For thousands of Catholics the
renewal organization Call to Action represents the future of the Catholic
church, keeping alive hope for some imminent institutional reform even as the
Vatican continues to crack down on innovation. Yet the vision of that future
may not be as clear as it once was, and it will certainly be shaped in part by
new forces and a growing debate within Call to Action as it nears its 25th
anniversary.
While old-time members have battled for more than two decades to
remain in the church even as they tried to alter it, some are discovering that
their children are not interested in the church they have struggled so hard to
change. For some younger Catholics, the issues their parents keep fighting for
are not particularly pressing; for others, an alternative church has already
begun to grow amid discontent and impatience with the institution; and for
still others, attachment to the church comes in dedication to its social
justice tradition with little concern about the ecclesiology or doctrines their
elders find divisive.
Not surprisingly, Call to Action members in their 50s, 60s and 70s
worry about the future of their 20,000-member organization. Will younger
Catholics want to take up their reform campaign or will they evolve an
alternative church of their own? The answers, given conversations with a number
of young members of Call to Action, seem to be a little of each.
Nor are the lines of disagreement exclusively along generational lines.
For instance, a form of alternative church already exists and
should be acknowledged as church, according to some long-time
members. It is a church that manifests itself in alternative liturgies
celebrated without a priest, by married priests, by women or lay presiders.
Often these are liturgies conducted in homes or in small faith communities
outside the local parish structure.
A charter Call to Action member, who asked that his name not be
used because he works for a church-run agency, said: There are voices in
CTA who want it to be more aggressive. They want to declare these alternative
models as church.
Staying in the church or forming a church of ones own is not
a new question within Call to Action. Its an eternal one,
said Linda Pieczynski, a former president, board member and now spokesperson
for the organization. Lots of parishes are doing their own thing,
she said, priests are granting annulments in the confessional, and
home Masses are being widely celebrated.
Younger Catholics, unlike the baby boomers and seniors, dont
feel guilty about not going to church, Pieczynski said. They look more at
the substance of Catholic teaching than at its obligations. Their staying
away is not a lifestyle issue, she said. Theyre not saying: I
wont go to church. Ill play golf. Rather theyre asking:
Why should I stick with an institution that discriminates against women?
They figure why fight for womens ordination and a non-celibate clergy?
This is a done deal. Its coming. Its the social justice
issues that draw them, she said.
Catholics with a small
c
Pieczynski, a lawyer in Hinsdale, Ill., held that Next Generation
Catholics -- as they are referred to in Call to Action circles -- are Catholics
with a small c. She predicted that they will dabble in
different denominations and religions during their lifetime. Theyll
do a little Buddhism and a little Catholicism and maybe something else. They
simply dont have enough regard for the church to spend energy on
it.
Still, Call to Action has been reaching out to younger Catholics
for more than three years. At last years annual conference in Milwaukee
some 400 of the 4,000 persons present represented the Next Generation -- a
catch of Catholics aged 20 to 42. Many came on scholarships provided by some 40
local and regional groups.
The Next Generation group held conversations with the post boomers
or Wisdom generation as seniors in the organization are often
called. In recent months theyve also conducted a lively dialogue online
and at Next Generation leadership and family retreats, which drew 75
participants this summer in Chicago and in Colorado. In a few weeks these Next
Generation Catholics will gather to discuss their religious and spiritual needs
and their hopes for the church in the new century. Their meeting will occur
during the annual Call to Action conference, to be held Nov. 3-5 in
Milwaukee.
Abandoning organized religion
What alarms many long-time members -- including Tim Schmaltz, a
member of CTA-Arizona, is the precipitous decline of church faithful. Studies
show that 70 percent of the World War II generation embraced an institutional
religion, 55 percent of baby boomers have done the same, but only 29 percent of
GenXers have any allegiance to organized religion. The trends among GenX
Catholics mirror the wider public. According to an NCR/Gallup survey
(see NCR, Oct. 29, 1999), only 39 pecent of Catholics age 18-38 say that
church is among the most important pars of life. that figure compares with 46
percent for those 39-58 years old and 66 percent for those 59 and older.
The numbers speak for themselves, Schmaltz said.
Over the next 20 years, were going to have empty parishes just like
the other mainstream churches have had.
But the drop in numbers is not just a result of disinterested
youth. Don Wedd, regional coordinator for Call to Action at its Chicago
headquarters, acknowledged that over time older members have become
increasingly frustrated with the slow rate of change. Some have
gone elsewhere, though none is known to have formally started a new church. Of
those who remain, 90 percent attend Mass at least once a week.
Wedd said there was no movement within the organization either to
split from the Catholic church or to officially acknowledge an alternative
liturgy as church -- even if some may have broached the idea in person or by
e-mail. The reason people abandon the church is because theyre not
getting nurtured, he said, noting that the priest shortage has caused even more
to leave. In his native Australia, Wedd pointed to recent surveys indicating
that in Sydney and Melbourne 97 and 94 percent respectively of young people had
stopped attending Mass within a year of leaving Catholic high school. Finding a
way to avoid such erosion here prompted the groups outreach to the Next
Generation.
When Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz threatened to excommunicate members
of Call To Action in his Lincoln, Neb., diocese, many of its members sought
renewal groups elsewhere in the state. Patty Hawk, 37, chairperson of
CTA-Nebraska and a member of the Next Generation Advisory Committee, has often
been asked: Why dont you just walk away?
Hawke is convinced, You cant effect change from
outside. You cant be heard, understood or understand whats going on
in the church unless youre in it, said the college instructor who
lives with her husband in Crete, Neb. Besides, CTA is the healthiest part
of the church, she said.
The questions that many members -- young and middle-aged -- in the
Lincoln diocese had to ask themselves were: Where can I be when I
dont agree with the church? and What can I do not to walk
away? The group felt a strong need to worship in the same parish weekly,
Hawk said. Since Advent of last year several families have journeyed 150 miles
round trip to attend a Saturday evening liturgy in a small town parish in the
Omaha archdiocese. After Mass they gather for supper and fellowship in the
town, forming what Hawke called an intimate faith community.
Hawk was one of the 50 persons who came to a Next Generation
retreat in Chicago in July. She was pleased to see so many lesbians and gays
attending, noting: There must be something we do that is seen as
inclusive. CTA-sponsored retreats offer GenXers a place to speak freely
and to question safely, she said.
Retreat attendant Dana Myer, 29, a psychologist and teacher in
Tacoma, Wash., characterized most of the Catholics she knows in Washington and
in her home city of Portland, Ore., as people whove neither left the
church nor become active in it. Were not as hung up on liturgy as
the older folks. We follow our consciences and dont get too upset. There
isnt the sense that if I do this or that, Im leaving the
church.
But for Chris Stampolis of Santa Clara, Calif., who also attended
the Chicago retreat, CTA may be courting younger Catholics for the wrong
reasons. Is it recruiting them to insure its future or to further its
mission? If the answer is both, then Stampolis wants CTA to
clarify its mission.
Does it support the objectives in Vatican IIs Gaudium et
Spes document and the U.S. Bishops 1976 Call to Action
statement? Is its raison dêtre closer to The Call for Reform
that CTA outlined in its March 1990 New York Times ad, which ran with
4,500 signatures and invited more signers? Or is it moving more toward what he
called an attitude of the heck with the church; lets try something
new?
Stampolis, 34, community relations manager for a Santa Clara
environmental agency thought that Call to Actions Web site -- containing
full texts of its cornerstone documents -- indicated the value the organization
places in them. While he found the early goals of the group to be
extremely progressive, specific and challenging, he regretted that
they have not been remotely enacted. While most of the foundational
documents deal with social and economic justice issues, the thrust of
todays Call to Action is geared to gender concerns, he
said.
If the organization were to put as much push into
sweatshops, union organizing and the huge inequities in American
society, as it gives to gender concerns, its tent would be much
broader, Stampolis said. In his view, CTA pays insufficient attention to
economic issues, because they challenge the lifestyle of most of its members.
Too long in opposition
Stampolis thought that older members were often to blame for their
childrens abandoning the church. The hubris of these parents is
huge. They feel they hold the key to renewal. More often than not, they
are obstructionists, he said, comparing them to the Republicans in
the last three Congresses. They have been in opposition for so long, they
dont know how to lead.
If the organization is looking for counsel from Silicon Valley,
Stampolis advised them to put their beliefs into action. This would mean
affirming most of the encyclicals of Pope John Paul and the majority of the
U.S. Bishops statements, he said. Call to Action boomers need to recover
their balance. Criticize where appropriate and commend when
deserved.
For Bridget Brownell, 24, the organization offers young and old
different interests among social justice and church reform issues. A member of
the St. Francis Catholic Worker Farm in Lacona, N.Y., Brownell works with 16-
to 19-year-olds. I try to open them to God by helping them understand
rural poverty.
Brownell said she thinks that GenXers greatest gifts to Call
to Action are their high levels of energy and technical knowledge. We can
make services more upbeat. Its her hope that the organization will
work so that more people are welcome at the Lords table.
I feel that the divorced, gays, lesbians, those whove
remarried outside the church and those whove made a different choice for
birth control are being squeezed out, she said.
For Jeanne Hidalgo, a young mother of four in Grosse Pointe,
Mich., the GenXers are struggling with a church they feel is patriarchal,
homophobic and where social justice is not on the table. We are frustrated and
dont know what to do, she said, adding that she and others have
formed faith-sharing groups[.]
Hidalgo lamented, Ninety percent of my Catholic peers have
left the church. Everyone I meet is an ex-Catholic. They find it
bizarre that I still go to church, she said, describing her
own spiritual journey as a very lonely walk. Hidalgo and her
husband, Albert, attended the Chicago retreat where she found other young
people doing it, living it, devoting their life to the poor, working in
soup kitchens, volunteering.
Unlike older Catholics in Call to Action, Hidalgo is not upset by
the lack of vocations. She saw it as almost a gift, because
we lay people are supposed to be transforming and redefining what should
be church. A lot of the GenXers that she meets tell her that they had
awesome liturgy in college, are lost without it and cant find
it in their local church. She said she hopes that campus ministry programs
would ignite the churchs next generation.
In Denver, Amy Sheber Howard, 29, is raising two toddlers with her
husband, Jeff, and studying for her masters degree in theology at Iliff
School of Theology. In August she organized a Next Generation Family Retreat in
nearby Estes Park.
Sheber Howard said she finds it difficult to live in a
community of faith with such internal contradictions as the Catholic
church poses for GenXers. We cant fathom how an institution has
survived to this day that discriminates against women, doesnt welcome
gays and treats the races unequally.
What attracts us are its traditions
and social teachings.
How many will remain loyal?
Just how loyal GenXers will be to a church that many of them see
as too hierarchical and too authoritarian remains crucial not only to Call to
Actions future, but to that of the entire church. Most of us feel a
freedom not to be held under by an institution. We listen but were not
tied down by the same struggles that have engaged boomers and their
elders in Call to Action, Sheber Howard said. Our greatest hope is to
work in our church. Our greatest pain is that there are so few
opportunities. As a student at a United Methodist seminary where her
peers come from some 20 to 30 denominations, shes seen the glass
ceiling in Protestant churches too.
Sheber Howard, a member of Call to Actions national board,
is one of 12 young persons who have been meeting for the last three years to
plan events for young singles, young marrieds and young people with families.
The debate over where the organization should invest its efforts is ongoing in
Colorado and across the nation, she said. Do we grow in faith and
spirituality as faithful Catholics? Do we affirm all the foundation statements?
Or does it make more sense to put our energy and resources into alternative
models of church? she asked.
Many GenXers bring advanced degrees in theology to the
debate. Theyre used to thinking critically, she said. They
understand that by limiting the public face of the church to celibate
males, were limiting those who could be the churchs visible
outreach, she said. While younger Catholics agree that Yes, Father
can speak for them, the priests view is but one view, Sheber Howard
noted. We have learned from contextual theology that the more reflections
there are on the gospels, the richer we are for it.
She and her husband, Jeff Howard, remain active in Call to Action
because We want a church that will be a home to our children, she
said.
We want our children to know that the church we follow is
modeled after Jesus who was so radically loving and radically inclusive.
My dream, she continued, is that every member of
the Catholic community would live more fully the gospel call to love in a
radical way. All too often that kind of loving is left to a 12-member justice
and peace committee.
Should church leaders be panicked by the exodus of youth? I
think we ought to create a new liturgical position, said a New Jersey
priest who didnt want his name used. We need an official kisser --
someone designated to kiss all the young people goodbye as they leave the
church on their Confirmation Day, few of them ever returning.
The dozen GenXers who spoke with NCR all conveyed their
need to stay in the church in one way or another in order to renew it.
The whole reason for reforming the church is fidelity to Jesus Christ.
Where but in the Eucharist can one practice communion with Jesus Christ?
asked theologian Tom Beaudoin, who has written and spoken extensively about
Gen-X Catholics.
Pieczynski is happy that the Next Generation members are
picking up the torch and re-energizing CTA. Many in Call To Action
await a new pontificate, hoping it will favor the ordination of married men and
allow women to be full partners in the churchs sacramental ministry. At
the same time, online discussions and the Chicago and Colorado retreats suggest
that younger Catholics whove chosen to stay in the church will continue
to be more interested in its justice agenda than its renewal agenda. As
delighted as long-time Call to Action members are to have younger members
aboard, they worry the Next Generation will not pursue Call to Actions
reform campaign -- begging the questions: What next? And who next?
Despite the vast decline in numbers of younger Catholics in the
pews, Hawk in Nebraska believes that the Next Generation will continue to
influence the direction of Call to Action and of U.S. Catholicism. She said,
The church is our culture. We are the church.
A Call to Action movement in transition and wanting to attract
younger folks must decide if its goal is to build up the Kingdom of God
and make our Catholic tradition more vital and rich, or is it to kick down the
structure? Its as obvious as that, Stampolis said.
For Sheber Howard, rocking her babies high in the Rocky Mountains,
the Spirit of Jesus is alive in GenXers. We can effect change
more than we think. Young people are working hard for renewal. Were not
left alone. Were being directed.
National Catholic Reporter, October 6, 2000
[corrected 10/20/2000]
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