If internal heresy were likened to a disease, how might one
imagine its progressive assault against the Body of Christ? The errors embed
themselves within the members of diocesan staff and in parish leadership, from
that point they spread through polluted catechesis, workshops, and homilies.
The inevitable lysis of the Holy Spirit seeks out error and removes it.
Therefore, like potent bacteria that breed and mutate and move through the
system in innumerable camouflages, internal heresy operates shrewdly, with
stealth to avoid detection and eradication.
The Call to Action (CTA) movement is just such a syndrome of
internal heresies. To make matters worse, around the CTA movement have grown up
a legion of supportive organizations, each with inter-related ambitions. This
creates tremendous confusion and generally protects the parent movement against
serious crackdown, particularly as there are bishops prepared to speak both for
and against it.
In the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, for instance, Bishop
Fabian Bruskewitz warned Catholics that membership in the organization Call to
Action would result in excommunication.1 "All Catholics in and of the
Diocese of Lincoln, are forbidden to be members of the organizations and groups
listed below," Bruskewitz wrote in a mandate published on March 22, 1996.
"Membership in these organizations is always perilous
to the Catholic Faith and most often is totally incompatible with the Catholic
Faith: Planned Parenthood, Society of St. Pius X, Hemlock Society, Call to
Action, Call to Action Nebraska, St. Michael the Archangel Chapel, Freemasons,
Job's Daughters, DeMolay, Eastern Star, Rainbow Girls, and Catholics for a Free
Choice. Any Catholics in and of the Diocese of Lincoln who attain or retain
membership in any of the above listed organizations . . . are by that very fact
. . . under interdict and absolutely forbidden to receive Holy Communion."
On the other side of the spectrum, seven months after the
excommunication of Nebraska Call to Action participants, Bishops Thomas Gumbleton
of Detroit and Raymond Lucker of New Ulm, Minnesota were speakers at the
National Call to Action Conference.2 The person who observes these antithetical
positions must wonder where the other bishops stand in these matters.
Archbishop Michael Sheehan of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe provides a fairly
typical example.
Archbishop Sheehan has been openly critical of Call to
Action. He writes: "There is another group called We Are the Church [Call
to Action]. This group is composed of people who reject the teaching authority
of the Pope and want to force the Holy Father to change the moral teaching of
the Church in sexuality (e.g. approval of homosexual acts), and to have
ordination of women and married men, among other things. . . . What is to be
done in viewing the dissenting movements?. . . We know we are on solid ground
when we follow the guidance of the successor of Peter and the Bishops appointed
by him."3
However, despite the Archbishop's firm articulation, the
Call to Action hub of New Mexico continues to operate unhampered on
Archdiocesan property, doing exactly what the Archbishop has decried: it and
its associated parish openly promote approval of homosexual acts. A Call to
Action "Church Renewal Organization," the Center for Action and
Contemplation,4 is situated on the grounds of Holy Family Parish. Speakers at
the Center have not only taught that Scripture carries no condemnation of
sodomy, but that on the contrary, Jesus has blessed and approved the
sexually-engaged homosexual relationship.5 This teaching may have been publicly
chastized by the Archbishop of Santa Fe, but it flourishes on his turf. New
Mexican Call to Action supporters continue to do as they please.6
Call to Action flourishes in New Mexico in other ways, as
well. Erroneous teachings about homosexuality are only one area that Call to
Action beliefs filter into the archdiocese through the Center for Action and
Contemplation. For example, the Center is a founding member of Albuquerque
Interfaith, a local affiliate of the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF).7
Albuquerque Interfaith, in association with the IAF, is part of a national
network of ecumenical, neighborhood-action groups using diocesan resources.
Given the Center for Action and Contemplation's Call to Action philosophy, it
is hardly surprising to find that it would support an IAF local, because the
IAF is also strongly sympathetic with Call to Action, as demonstrated in a
recent Commentary by the Wanderer Forum Foundation.8
HISTORICAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN IAF AND CALL TO
ACTION
The Wanderer Forum Foundation Commentary outlines the
history of Industrial Areas Foundation's relationship to Call to Action. That
relationship predates October 1976, when the National Conference of Catholic
Bishops sponsored a three-day Call to Action Conference in Detroit. This
Conference brought together delegates from across the United States to ratify
eight position papers, prepared in advance of the Conference.9
Several of these papers had the clear imprint of the
Industrial Areas Foundation on them. For example, the working paper on Neighborhood
recommended (and it was approved by the Call to Action delegates) that every
parish support a "competent," ecumenical neighborhood action group,
with diocesan resources used to train organizational "leaders" for
their use.10 The IAF had also been involved the year before in a pre-Detroit
"hearing" on the topic of Nationhood. The Nationhood working papers
subsequently proposed that the Church establish priorities for public policy,
define major election issues, educate the laity on the moral dimensions of
public issues, and implement these goals ecumenically ‹ in conjunction with
other churches and civic groups."11 Msgr. Jack Egan of Chicago, "a
longtime Alinsky supporter, IAF board member, and activist on Chicago urban
issues,"12 served as co-chair of the 1976 Call to Action plenary sessions.13
The Call to Action "working papers" prepared for the 1976 Detroit
Conference contained specific challenges to the discipline and doctrine of the
Church.
". . . [M]ore than 2,400 delegates at the conference ‹
people deeply involved in the life of the institutional Church and appointed by
their bishops ‹ approve such progressive resolutions, ones calling for, among
other things, the ordination of women and married men, female altar servers,
and the right and responsibility of married couples to form their own
consciences on the issue of artificial birth control."14
However, if the Church is to operate like a political body,
as Call to Action has and continues to desire, these changes cannot occur
without an organized revolution for change.
Therefore, it has been the effort of Call to Action-related
organizations, including the IAF, each within its own sphere of influence, to
bring about this work for change. The twenty years after the 1976 inaugural
Call to Action Conference have seen implementation of a number of its
recommendations by means of church-supported IAF local affiliates. It may not
yet be that every United States Catholic parish supports a
"competent" ecumenical neighborhood-action group, with diocesan and
parish resources used to train organizational "leaders," but there
are over 50 local IAF affiliates in various cities around the United States,
most of which have the membership of several Catholic parishes. These IAF
locals receive Catholic money through the Catholic Campaign for Human
Development and through the dues of their member parishes. Add to that dozens
of additional IAF-style organizations that are also receiving CCHD funds and
local Catholic parish membership dues, and one can see that the Call to Action
dream of organizing the parishes of the United States is not far off.15
THE CONTINUING RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CALL TO
ACTION AND IAF
The IAF, besides its historical connections to the first
Call to Action, is still associated to it. For one, Msgr. Jack Egan, long-time
IAF organizer and promoter, has maintained close and supportive ties to Call to
Action. "Long before Call to Action became an organization some bishops
banned, it was actually an event organized by the bishops. . . . Locally [in
the Chicago area] that discernment led to the formation of a national church
reform movement with the same name [Call to Action]. . . . Now, as the 20th
anniversary of that historic [Call to Action] meeting approaches, nearly 100
Catholics gathered on Sept. 15th at Rosary College in River Forest to hear the
recollections of two of Chicago's most prominent Catholics who attended the
Detroit meeting, Msgr. John Egan and Patty Crowley."16 Msgr. Egan was
quoted as reminiscing:
"But why did more than 2,400 delegates at the [1976
Call to Action]conference ‹ people deeply involved with the life of the
institutional Church and appointed by their bishops ‹ approve such progressive
resolutions, ones calling for, among other things, the ordination of women and
married men, female altar servers, and the right and responsibility of married
couples to form their own consciences on the issue of artificial birth
control?. . . . [Because] they had a chance to talk about that issue in terms
of personal experience, and they found that people listened, were touched and
in many cases changed their minds."17
Msgr. Egan has also been credited for providing the motivating
force behind the organization of Chicago's IAF local. United Power for Action
and Justice.
". . . Jack Egan initiated this organizing process with
religious and union leaders under the name Chicago Metropolitan Sponsors [the
name was changed to UPAJ at the 10/19/97 inaugural assembly]. Key support came
from Bishop Brazier and Cardinal Bernardin."18
Another significant tie between the Call to Action agenda
and the Industrial Areas Foundation is demonstrated in the fact that a number
of IAF member institutions are also Call to Action members:
€ Our Lady Queen of Angels Communities, a
member of the Texas IAF Valley Interfaith, is listed as a Call to Action
participating community.19 The listing includes a description of Our Lady Queen
of Angels communities: "We . . . are actively involved in working to
change our social reality through Valley Interfaith of the Industrial Areas
Foundation."20
€ The
Southwest Austin Christian Community of St. lgnatius Martyr Church is listed as
a Call to Action participating community.21 The Southwest Austin Christian
Community, through St. Ignatius Martyr Church, is a member of Austin
Interfaith.22
€ As already mentioned, the Center for
Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico is listed as a Call to Action
participating community. It is a member of the IAF local, Albuquerque
Interfaith.23
€ St. Odilia Catholic Church in Tucson,
Arizona is an institutional member of IAF local affiliate, Pima County
Interfaith Council. In March 1998, St. Odilia hosted a Future of Priestly
Ministry Dialogue, a joint project of Call to Action and Future Church.24
€ Holy Family in Inverness, Illinois is a
member of the IAF local affiliate. United Power for Action and Justice. The pastor
of Holy Family, Fr. Patrick Brennan, is a popular Call to Action speaker.25
Yet still another significant link between the Call to
Action agenda and the Industrial Areas Foundation can be demonstrated in the
speakers at Call to Action activities. The 1996 Call to Action calendar, for
example, indicated that Ernesto Cortes, Southwest Regional Director of the IAF,
was a guest speaker for a Wisconsin Call to Action workshop.26 The Fall
1998-Spring 1999 Call to Action Calendar of Events shows Sr. Pearl Caesar, an
IAF organizer in San Antonio, speaking with John Carr, secretary for the United
States Catholic Conference's Department for Social Development and World Peace
in Upstate New York. Their Call to Action-promoted talk was hosted by the North
American Forum for Small Christian Communities (NAFSCC) and was entitled
"The Parish and Small Christian Communities: Organizing for Social
Change."27
THE NORTH AMERICAN FORUM FOR SMALL CHRISTIAN
COMMUNITIES
One's eyes begin glaze at the number and pomposity of names
and titles. However, the relationship between diocesan employees and Call to
Action work is extremely interesting. The telephone number for the 1998 Call to
Action-promoted talk, at which IAF organizer Sr. Pearl Caesar and the United
States Catholic Conference's John Carr were speakers, is for the offices of the
Archdiocese of Louisville. Someone working for the Archdiocese of Louisville
was coordinating a Call to Action talk scheduled in upstate New York.
The archdiocesan number provided by the Call to Action
calendar serves many offices, including the office of Ms. Joan Cunningham, who
wears several hats. She serves as the Coordinator of Evangelization for the
Archdiocese of Louisville.28 She is also the "Membership Coordinator"
of the North American Forum for Small Christian Communities (NAFSCC ‹ an
association for Diocesan Personnel). Therefore, Ms. Cunningham, as a
coordinator for the NAFSCC, has been fielding inquiries at her archdiocesan
office about a Call to Action/ NAFSCC weekend in upstate New York.29 Without a
good deal of information about these various organizations and their
relationship to one another, it is unlikely that Ms. Cunningham would be called
on supporting a Call to Action activity.
However, the relationships are there. NAFSCC connections to
Call to Action are several-fold. In addition to hosting a Call to
Action-promoted event, one past chair of the NAFSCC, Rosemary Bleuher, who is
currently the RENEW 2000 director for the Diocese of Joliet, Illinois, has been
a speaker at the National Call to Action Conference.30 She has also,
incidentally, served on the Advisory Board of the Campaign for Human
Development.31
NAFSCC held a joint board meeting in July 1998 with Buena
Vista, an organization whose founding affiliate group is a Call to Action
Church Renewal Organization, and with the National Alliance of Parishes
Restructuring into Communities (NAPRC), an organization headed by the popular
Call to Action speaker, Rev. Arthur Baranowski.32." Together, the three
organizations have issued a common mission statement, plan to establish a
common website, a common brochure, a joint conference for 2002, and hold an
agreement about "the priority of church, Small Church Communities and the
work that will be accomplished by mutual respect and promotion of the three
diverse ways of transforming the Church."33 (The "three diverse ways
of transforming the Church" are through the work of these three
organizations.)
The NAFSCC is "committed to the vision of Small
Christian Community (SCC) as a style of parish life"34 To that end, the
NAFSCC has joined "informally" not only with representatives of the
above groups, but with several others around the country as well, to gather
information about the connection between Small Christian Communities and the
RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults). In addition to Buena Vista,
NAFSCC, and the NAPRC, this "informal" group includes:
1. the NCCB Committee on Evangelization;
2. the National Pastoral Life Center 35; and
3. RENEW International.
The operative words in all this plethora of activism,
acronyms, and networking are "Small Christian Communities." The
effort of these coordinated bodies is to encourage small, more personal
"faith-based" groupings within the parish structure. Some of these
small groups take beneficial and unobjectionable forms, such as orthodox prayer
groups and Bible studies. Other forms of the "Small Christian
Community," however, are autonomous from the Church, and evangelize fellow
Catholics with a heterodox theology, political conscientization, or both. The
October 1998 Call to Action weekend in Canandaigua, NY, hosted by the NAFSCC,
given by an IAF organizer and a USCC official was, recall, "The Parish and
Small Christian Communities: Organizing for Social Change."
Just as NAFSCC and Call to Action are promoting the
"Small Christian Communities," so too RENEW literature says that its
program aims to establish SCCs within each parish.36 The North American Forum
for Small Christian Communities began, as a matter of fact, in response to the
RENEW program: "In 1984, people completing RENEW began talking about how
to continue to come together for support."37
Whether fostered by RENEW International, by the Church-based
community organizing of the IAF and similar groups, by the NAFSCC, by the
NAPRC, or by Call to Action, the "Small Christian Communities" have
similar roots. "RENEW" was developed by Call to Action's Archbishop
Peter Gerety38 and has a strong, "social justice" component.39 That
component, if removed from the moral framework of the Church, lends itself very
nicely to politically left-wing, Alinsky-style community organization. Call to
Action, in turn, organized, in part, by Alinsky supporter, Msgr. Jack Egan, has
used many of the organizational and confrontational tactics he had learned in
the IAF.40 Therefore, it comes as little surprise to learn that the IAF also
has created small faith communities in the member churches of its local affiliations.
What, then, is the "social change" being promoted by Call to Action
Small Christian Communities and by IAF small faith communities? Is it the
social change that occurs when men are converted to Christ or is it a
materialistic counterfeit?
INDUSTRIAL AREAS FOUNDATION AND SMALL CHRISTIAN
COMMUNITIES
Harold McDougall, writing prior to 1993, traces the
influence that the North American version of liberation theology, such as that
espoused by black historian, writer, and Democratic Socialist, Dr. Cornel West,
has had on the Baltimore IAF whose participating pastors have networked
together to develop a "consistent" theology."41 He particularly
describes the intimate fellowships which the local, BUILD (Baltimoreans United
in Leadership Development), encourages. Integral to these small communities is
Bible study and prayer, the "text" of Scripture always being related
to ‹ or filtered through ‹ the "context" of community.
The "religious" elements of these groups under IAF
influence are clearly subordinate to the IAF's organizational perspective. The
organization makes use of religious symbols and sentiment to further its own
intentions.
"An identity needs symbols and rituals to sustain it.
Prayers are an important part of religious practice for all Christians. IAF
organizations start all meetings with a prayer. . . . Prayer serves to tap the
religious sentiment that motivated many leaders to get involved with the IAF.
Moreover, they act as symbols to remind participants of their religious
commonality. Since these prayers are to serve a unifying function, they
typically draw from Scriptures that stress the importance of Community. Prayers
that emphasize affirmation of faith, or that are associated too strongly with
particular denominations, are avoided. Instead, ministers (and leaders) say
prayers that call people to social action, or that refer to the rebuilding of
community. For example, before the start of COPS' [San Antonio local,
Communities Organized for Public Service] 20th anniversary convention, Fr. Al
Jost told the story of Ezekiel's prophecy for the rebuilding of Jerusalem; he
did not say the 'Hail Mary'."42
Along the same lines, Ernesto Cortes is quoted as having
said that "all of the sponsoring churches [in the IAF] believe in making a
preferential option for the poor, the people who in a biblical sense have not
yet come to the table. Christ said, 'My kingdom is not of this world.' He was
the Good Shepherd who brings his flock into the life of the community."43
Cortes constructs a confused image. Christ's kingdom, which is not of this
world, and the eternal Eucharistic table, are jammed together with the IAF's
community organizing and political activism. The biblical sense of
"poor," as in "poor of spirit," is one concept. "Preferential
option," that is, the provision of material advantages for the physically
poor is another concept. Cortes, to his own advantage, blurs the two concepts,
as if there were no distinction.
This is similar to the abuse of Scripture in Latin America
in which the Bible is "re-read" to provide a support of ideological
aims. The similarity between the IAF and liberationist distortions of Scripture
doesn't lie with a shared or common "outcome," for unlike Marxist
Christians in Latin America, the IAF is not fomenting violent revolution, but
it lies in the retelling of Scripture for materialistic purposes. God's
intervention on behalf of the Israelites to protect Jerusalem in the book of
Nehemiah is given a "spin" by the IAF to provide providential support
for their Nehemiah housing projects in New York, California, and Tennessee.
The base communities formed at the instigation of the IAF,
or at the instigation of proponents of liberation theology, and other such
groups with a "guided" materialistic content, are different from spiritually
motivated small faith-fellowships and Bible study groups. The common
denominator of IAF to liberation theology's base communities can been
appreciated in the comments of Latin American liberation theologian Carlos
Mesters:
"When the [base] community takes shape on the basis of
the real-life problems of the people, then the discovery of the Bible is an
enormous reinforcement. When the community takes shape only around the reading
of the Bible, then it faces a crisis as soon as it must move on to social and
political issues... "44
The real significance of the base community to the IAF
organizer is in the "joint interpretation and celebration of the hopeful
messages of the Bible that empowered these people, giving them a sense of
direction and purpose as well as a sense of self-worth."45 It is in the
base community that the IAF believes the deeper, stronger
"relationships" of a community can be forged, where people share not
merely a common political ambition, but their intimate and personal concerns.
Such close-knit fellowships then "feed" into the political goals of
the larger group, for "people identify with, and follow, their
leaders" who are well-known and trusted.46
The base communities of the IAF do not discuss Marxist
praxis but the "participatory democracy" of the democratic
socialists. "The IAF shapes the use of this religious culture by its
consensual political strategy. It frames its issues within a broader context of
religious and family values. Meanwhile, it taps religious symbols and practices,
like prayers, for political purposes."47
Along the Mexican-Texan border in the Diocese of
Brownsville, not far from Sr. Pearl Caesar's San Antonio, there are 500 small
communities which have been networked together since the late 1980s, "working
to change our social reality through Valley Interfaith of the Industrial Areas
Foundation."48
The IAF has not hesitated to use its small faith communities
to involve itself in the internal life of the Church: Peter Skerry reports that
the IAF was involved in the election of a Texas bishop: "Fundamental to
the success of COPS [San Antonio IAF local] has been the support of Archbishop
Flores, himself the beneficiary of a COPS letter writing campaign when the hierarchy
was considering his appointment."49
The "social change" sought by the IAF is a Marxist
reorganization of the government, the economy, and a church that can and will
support such changes.
BACK TO NEW MEXICO
Which brings us full circle, back to New Mexico, where the
IAF local has become involved in the Archdiocesan RENEW program. Organizer Tim
McCluskey of Albuquerque Interfaith held a Leadership Development Workshop at
Our Lady of Guadalupe Church on June 15, 1996. There he was recorded, saying: ".
. . [I]f you give me 50 names of other people in this congregation who you
think I should talk to... I'll go talk to them in that period of time, and see
what kind of story we're getting: how do we feed that into the RENEW."50
It has also been reported that Albuquerque Interfaith organizers have offered
to train the pastoral council members of other Albuquerque parishes, as well.
In this way, the internal life of the parish becomes scrambled with the
community organizers' methodologies, ideologies, and secular agenda.
One begins to see how a bishop might denounce the dissenting
opinions of an organization like Call to Action while yet, wittingly or
unwittingly, support an entire host of insidious programs and organizations
that are at work to make the agenda of dissent an increasing social and
theological reality. All he has to do is leave those organizations in place and
see to it that they receive plenty of Catholic support.
Call to Action is not a marginalized group of aging
activists meeting once a year to spur one another on to stranger and stranger
spiritual oddities. It is a highly organized, well-entrenched network of
sympathetic bishops, religious, and highly placed diocesan lay employees who
seek to radically alter essential Church teachings on matters of morals and
faith. It includes people who are also working for radical societal changes,
which they believe can be shaped and implemented through church-based
organizing. Nevertheless, they must remain "underground." The reason
they must, for the present, remain underground is that Call to Action receives
scant support among the Catholic faithful.51 Therefore, Call to Action-related
organizations and individuals must mask their agendas and deny their
inter-connectedness.
Endnotes
1. The Extra Synodal Legislation mandated by Bishop
Bruskewitz that excommunicated all Call to Action members within his diocese
went into effect as of Apr. 15, 1996.
2. On Friday, Nov. 15, 1996, Bishop Ray Lucker spoke on
"Small Faith Communities and My Journey in Faith." On Saturday, Nov.
16, 1996, auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton spoke on "Call to Action:
Past, Present, Future." The 1996 Call to Action National Conference was
held in Detroit, Michigan and bore the theme of "We Are Church." Gumbleton
was a speaker at the 1995 Call to Action Conference, had been scheduled to
speak at the 1994 Call to Action Conference (but had to cancel), and was a
speaker and Mass celebrant at the 1993 Call to Action Conference.
3. Archbishop Michael Sheehan, "Dissenting
Movements," People of God, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, May
1998.
4. The Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC) is listed
in the 1998 Edition of the Call to Action Renewal Directory. The Center
promoted the Call to Action "We Are Church" Coalition in its December
1996-January 1997 issue of Radical Grace (a publication of CAC).
5. June 27-29, 1997 retreat, "Coming Out, Coming Home:
A Place in the Church for Lesbians and Gays" held at the Center for Action
and Contemplation. Fr. Jack Robinson, OFM, pastor of Holy Family Parish in
Albuquerque, and one of two speakers at the retreat, taught that Jesus' healing
of the Centurion's servant [Matt. 8:5-13, Luke 7:1-10] was a blessing of an
openly homosexual relationship: ". . . what we have here is probably a
direct encounter of what we would call today 'gay.' Christ's reaction is
acceptance of the person and even eagerness to restore health of the pais and
by implication, to restore the relationship of the two, making possible the
renewal of any sexual activity which they would have enjoyed together prior to
the illness"
6. A) Holy Family hosted a speaker from PFLAG at its Oct.
12, 1998 Sunday Masses. B) Dignity, a Call to Action "Church Renewal
Organization," meets at Holy Family. According to the Dignity/New Mexico
calendar, Dignity members regularly attend the 5:30 p.m. Mass at Holy Family
each Saturday except the first weekend of the month, when they gather at the
University of New Mexico Aquinas Newman Center. (The Aquinas Newman Center has
also hosted We Are Church [Call to Action] activities.) Dignity and PFLAG both
challenge Church teaching that homosexuality is intrinsically disordered and
that homosexual acts are objectively immoral. NB: These activities occurred after
the May, 1998 letter of Archbishop Sheehan in the People of God.
7. As proclaimed in a 1994 flyer concerning up-coming
programs, produced by the Center for Action and Contemplation. As recently as
at an October 29, 1998 Interfaith gathering at the Ernie Pyle School in
Albuquerque, CAC was still identified as an Interfaith member. The Archbishop
has given his public support of Albuquerque Interfaith in several ways, most
notably a letter sent to all Archdiocesan pastors, dated Apr. 18, 1994. The letter
opens: "I write you today to encourage your parish to become involved in a
very special organization, Albuquerque Interfaith."
8. A Commentary on the Industrial Areas Foundation, Wanderer
Forum Foundation, December 1998.
9. The position papers were on the topics of 1) Nationhood,
2) Neighborhood, 3) Family, 4) Humankind, 5) Personhood, 6) Ethnicity, 7)
Church, and 8) Work. They are described in a number of places, one being the
Call to Action "Working Papers: Introduction," NCCB, undated (circa
1976).
10. 1976 Call to Action working paper on
"Neighborhood," pg. 12, lines 10-17.
II. 1976 Call to Action working paper on
"Nationhood" p. 12, lines 13-17.
12. The Neighborhood Works, op. cit.
13. Heidi Schiumpf, "Remembering the First Call to
Action Conference," The New World News, Sept. 20, 1996.
14. The New World News, op. cit.
15. Other IAF-style organizations that have American
Catholic parishes as members or that are funded by Catholic Campaign for Human
Development money are PICO (Pacific Institute for Community Organization with
about 25 local affiliations in cities around the United States), ACORN
(Association of Communities organized for Reform Now, with dozens of local
affiliates. acorn's platform is openly socialist), DART (Direct Action and
Research Training Center, with about a dozen affiliates in different cities),
and the Gamaliel Foundation (with about 45 local affiliates in various cities).
16. Heidi Schiumpf, "Remembering the First Call to
Action Conference," The New World News, Sept. 20, 1996, column 1.
17. Ibid.
18. "United Power for Action and Justice Meeting Series
at St. Michael's, May, 1998," Notes from Meeting I, May 7, 1998,
indirectly quoting Cheri Andes, IAF organizer who was conducting the meeting.
19. Call to Action Renewal Directory, 1998 Internet Edition,
Texas listings.
20. Call to Action Renewal Directory, 1996 Internet Edition,
Texas listings.
21. Call to Action Renewal Directory, 1998 Internet Edition,
Texas listings.
22. Buena Vista News, 1998, p. 5. http://www.buenavista.org/ Also: listing
of member congregations in Austin Interfaith http://www.auschron.com/issues/voll4/issue46/pols.interfaith.members.html.
23. Call to Action Renewal Directory, 1998 Internet Edition,
New Mexico listings, including the Center for Action and Contemplation. Also:
Albuquerque Interfaith information for the year 1994 ‹ List of dues-paying
members.
24. 1995 Listing of Pima County Interfaith Council member
organizations. Http://demesan.simplenet.com/pcicl/ members.html. Also:
"Call to Action Newsbriefs," Church-watch, May 1998. Http://call-to-action.org/watch5-98/briefs.html.
25. Holy Family Parish Bulletin, October 5, 1997, letter
from the pastor, Pat Brennan; 1996 Call to Action Conference listing of focus
sessions, including "Traditions and Mc-Church" by Patrick Brennan;
announcement of August 1997 West Coast Call to Action Conference, listing
Patrick Brennan as a speaker.
26. Call to Action Calendar, October 17-19, 1996,
"Build the City of God: 6th Annual Urban Ministry Conference,"
Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
27. Call to Action Calendar of Events, obtained at http://www.call-to-action/calendar.html.
The event was held on October 15-18 in Canandaigua, NY.
28. NCCB/USCC listing of diocesan evangelization contacts: http://www.nccbuscc.org/em/evangelization/diocesan.htm.
29. Http://www.golden.org/worship/text/mehlmal3.txt.
30. 1998 Call to Action National Conference mailer lists
Bleuher as a speaker on "Imagining Future Church: Small Christian
Communities."
31. Short bio of Rosemary Bleuher ‹ a http://members.aol.com/Joliet2000/biography.html.
32. The Arvada, Colorado Buena Vista is listed in the 1998
Edition of the Call to Action Renewal Directory; Bob Keeker, "Prayer Amid
Life," News Day, Aug. 3, 1996 identifies Rev. Arthur Baranowski as the
president of the National Alliance for Parishes Restructuring into Communities
stationed in Maryville, MI. Baranowski, according to various Call to Action
literature, has spoken at the National Call to Action Conference in 1995, 1996,
1997 and 1998.
33. Buena Vista News, accessed at http://www.buenavista.org/. The material
is undated, but would have to have been prepared between August (the joint
board meeting was held on July 28-29, 1998) and November 1998; An undated
NAFSCC flyer states that Buena Vista, NAFSCC, and NAPRC have created a Joint
Task Force.
34. Undated NAFSCC flyer.
35. The telephone number for the National Pastoral Life
Center is the same as the telephone number for the USCC's Roundtable: National
Association of Catholic Diocesan Social Directors; Sr. Donna Ciangio, OP of the
National Pastoral Life Center sits on the 1999 NAFSCC Board and serves as Board
Secretary; The National Pastoral Life Center is run by Msgr. Philip Murnion,
who serves as staff director of the Call to Action-supported Common Ground
Project, decried by Cardinals Law, Bevilacqua, and Hickey.
36. According to RENEW International literature, small faith
sharing groups are one of the four ways a parish can join in the RENEW
"conversion process."
37. Undated NAFSCC flyer.
38. Brian Clowes, Call to Action or Call to Apostasy? Human
Life International, 1997. "Dissenting priest Fr. Bill Callahan [in a
Feb/Mar 1995 article in Call to Action publication, Churchwatch] revealed that
the SFC's [Small Faith Communities] will be used as an agent of change in the
Church, and that dissenters will then attempt to inject these changes back into
the Church: 'It is important for these communities to move forward with married
priests, with women priests'." ". . . SFCs are a refinement of the
'small faith-sharing groups' envisioned in the RENEW Program, which itself was
developed by Archbishop Peter Gerety, an organizer of the original 1976 Call to
Action Convention in Detroit." "It is obvious that CTA-style small faith
communities are antithetical to the apostolic mission of the Roman Catholic
Church because they cause people to turn in towards themselves instead of
directing their energies towards evangelizing the world. Every dissenting SFC
will be as unique as the beliefs of its members, and in no case will these
beliefs reflect those of the One True Faith or further the cause of
evangelization of the world"
39. A "sample bulletin insert" prepared by the
RENEW 2000 office of the Diocese of Joliet (presumably under the direction of
Rosemary Bleuher, past Chair of NAFSCC) says: "If you ever wanted to do
volunteer work or felt you were being called to some kind of service but didn't
know where to go or what to do, consider joining a Small Christian Community
(SCC) group in the Fall. One of the elements of SCC is service."
40. See Fr. Vincent Miceli's eyewitness account of the 1976
Detroit Call to Action, "Detroit: A Call to Revolution in the
Church," Homiletic and Pastoral Review, March 1977.
41. Harold McDougall, Black Baltimore: A New Theory of
Community, 1993.
42. Mark R. Warren, Creating a Multi-Racial Democratic
Community: A Case Study of the Texas Industrial Areas Foundation, Ph.D.
Dissertation, Harvard University, 1995.
43. Kaye Northcott, "To Agitate the Dispossessed . . .
On the Road with Ernie Cortes," Southern Exposure, July/August 1985.
44. Harold M. McDougall, Black Baltimore: A New Theory of
Community, 1993, quoting Carlos Mesters, "The Use of the Bible in
Christian Communities of the Common People."
45. Harold M. McDougall, Black Baltimore: A New Theory of
Community, 1993.
46. Ibid. The "Small Christian Communities,"
called "Base Communities (Comunidades de Base)" in Latin America,
were a critical component to Marxist organizing in there, among churches
swallowed up by the liberation theology movement. The concern is that these
"Small Christian Communities" might be used in a similar way to the
Marxist "Base Communities" by severing the faithful from their connection
to the Mystical Body of Christ (the Church) and replacing that connection with
parochial loyalties, political prejudices, and idiosyncratic spirituality.
47. Mark R. Warren, Creating a Multi-Racial Democratic
Community: A Case Study of the Texas Industrial Areas Foundation, Ph.D.
Dissertation, Harvard, 1995.
48. "Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic
Communities," taken from the "Renewing our Church Directory"
published by Call to Action.
http://listserv.american.edu/catholic/Call-to-Action/lc-end.html
49. Peter Skerry, "Neighborhood COPS," New
Republic, Feb. 6,1984.
50. Taped recording of IAF organizer Tim McCluskey,
Albuquerque Interfaith Leadership Development Workshop, Our Lady of Guadalupe
Church, Albuquerque, NM, June 15, 1996.
51. The Call to Action "We Are Church Referendum,"
a petition distributed among United States Catholics in 1996, boasted that it
would receive over a million signatures in support of Church reorganization,
birth control, women and married priests, etc. It attained barely 1/3 of its goal.
What is the Industrial Areas Foundation?
Ethics from Hell
The Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) was begun by Saul
Alinsky, who wrote:
"Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder
acknowledgment to the very first radical; from all our legends, mythology, and
history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins ‹ or
which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the
establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom ‹
Lucifer." ‹ Saul Alinsky, dedication. Rules for Radicals
Alinsky meant what he said. The "ethics" he
proposed to his community organizers was straight from hell:
"The third rule of the ethics of means and ends is that
. . . the end justifies almost any means." ‹ Saul Alinsky, Rules for
Radicals (chapter "Of Means and Ends")
Little has changed in the IAF's arsenal of
"ethics."
"All participants in the Industrial Areas Foundation
national training programs are given a reprint of a 1933 article by John H.
Randall Jr., titled 'The Importance of Being Unprincipled' . . . The thesis is
that because politics is nothing but the 'practical method of compromise,' only
two kinds of people can afford the luxury of acting on principle . . . everyone
else who wants to be effective in politics has to learn to be 'unprincipled'
enough to compromise in order to see their principles succeed." ‹ Mary
Beth Rogers, Cold Anger (p. 210, footnotes for chapter 16, #4)
Reaping As You Sow
What is IAF doing today to use these "ethical"
principles? For one thing, it attempts to give the appearance of public support
for educational reform that:
€ Produces inferior academic achievement.
[See federally funded research sited at www.parentscoalition.org/resources/
documents/seven-reasons .htm]
€ Destroys traditional parental rights and
responsibilities. The parent is only one of many "stakeholders" in
his child.
€ Creates government control over all
facets of a citizen's life by "organizing communities around
schools." Schools that are struggling simply to teach academic skills are
now asked to regulate job placement, establish a student's "career
track," oversee mental and physical health care, dental care, and welfare.
€ Pushes its educational reform despite
lack of parental involvement or support of this reform. While claiming to
represent thousands, each IAF local has only a few, hand-picked supporters from
each congregation to back its educational "reform" movement. These
individuals say that they speak for the entire faith-based community, but how
many of their fellow congregants would agree?
Why is the IAF organizing in your church?
". . . one of the largest reservoirs of untapped power
is the institution of the parish and congregation. Religious institutions form
the center of the organization. They have the people, the values, and the
money." ‹ Organizing for Family and Church (pg. 18), IAF Publication
"Today, when many countries have seen the fall of
ideologies which bound politics to a totalitarian conception of the world ‹
Marxism being the foremost of these ‹ there is no less grave a danger that the
fundamental rights of a human being will be absorbed once again into politics."
‹ John Paul II, Centesimus Annus
The Social Changes Proposed by Call to Action
Here is a partial listing of the Call to Action Catholic
Organizations for Renewal. The social changes promoted by these groups are
self-explanatory:
€ Catholics
for a Free Choice (pro-abortion)
€ Conference
for Catholic Lesbians (homosexual advocacy)
€ Friends
of Creation Spirituality (Matthew Fox's neopagans)
€ Core
of Retired Priests United for Service (married priesthood advocacy)
€ Dignity
(homosexual advocacy)
€ FutureChurch
(promotes feminist theology, including destruction of a patriarchal hierarchy)
€ New
Ways Ministry (homosexual advocacy)
€ Pax
Christi (women priesthood advocacy, among other things)
€ Woman's
Ordination Conference (women priesthood advocacy)
€ Association
of Rights of Catholics in the Church (advocates elected priests and bishops,
contraception, self-determined divorce and remarriage, and homosexual
relationships)
Is the Call to Action organization of 1999 related to the
Detroit Call to Action Conference of 1976?
Today's Call to Action organization sees itself as directly
descended from the 1976 Detroit Call to Action Conference. In the
organization's own words:
"[Responding to Pope Paul VI's 1971 "Call To
Action" to create a more just world] the U.S. Bishops on their return home
from the Synod launched a creative consultation process. Over 800,000 Catholics
testified during two years of hearings, which culminated in the U.S. Bishops'
Call To Action Conference in Detroit in 1976, held in conjunction with the
American Bicentennial. More than 100 Bishops were among the 1,340 voting
delegates and the 1,500 observers. At the end of three momentous days of
discussion and debate, the assembly declared the Church must stand up to the
chronic racism, sexism, militarism and poverty in modern society. And to do so
in a credible way the Church must reevaluate its positions on issues like
celibacy for priests, the male-only clergy, homosexuality, birth control, and
the involvement of every level of the Church in important decisions. The
Detroit conference recommended that each diocese take the recommendations home
and act upon them.
CTA Chicago Born
"Subsequent to the 1976 Conference the leadership of
the U.S. Bishops Conference gradually distanced themselves from the event
because of some of the Church-justice issues raised. In Chicago, however, where
Cardinal John Cody's autocratic style had created a high level of tension,
several organizations of nuns, priests. Catholic school teachers and concerned
laity urged an on-going follow-up to the Detroit initiative. A conference of
over 400 people was held in October 1978, and Chicago Call To Action was
launched as a local organization."
‹A Brief History of Call To Action [taken from the Call to
Action website http://www.call-to-action.org/whohistory.html]
STEPHANIE BLOCK is the Director of Special Research Projects
for the Wanderer Forum Foundation. Her research for the Foundation has included
studies about the Catholic Campaign for Human Development and the Industrial
Areas Foundation. Mrs. Block has contributed articles to The Wanderer
newspaper. The Pillar, and has written Change Agent: The Industrial Areas
Foundation in the Catholic Church. She has made presentations at Regional
Wanderer Forums in Albany, NY, and Chicago, IL, and at the 30th Annual
International Wanderer Forum in 1997. Mrs. Block is the home-schooling mother of
seven children.
© Wanderer Forum Foundation, P.O. Box 542, Hudson, WI
54016-0542