Friday, February 29, 2008

Call to Action

The goals of this organization are spelled out in their charter. "Officers of the Church have the right to teach on matters both of private and public morality only after wide consultation with the faithful prior to the formulation.”

"All Catholics have the right to expect that Church documents and materials will avoid sexist language, and that symbols and imagery of God will not be exclusively masculine."

"All Catholics have the right to a voice in all decisions that affect them, including the choosing of their leaders."

"All Catholics, regardless of canonical status (lay or clerical), sex or sexual orientation, have the right to exercise all ministries in the Church for which they are adequately prepared, according to the needs and with the approval of the community."

This blatant call for women's ordination is repeated in Article 26: "All Catholic women have an equal right with men to the resources and the exercise of all the powers of the Church."

They want to be the ones who ultimately hold power at the top. For example, they want their own Supreme Tribunal whose job would be to hear cases charging illegal or unconstitutional actions.

At a Call to Action conference, attendees were asked by a journalist what motivates them and why they don't just leave the Church if they dislike it so much. A typical response revealed the true reason dissenters stay in the Church and are trying so hard to change it:"The Church has absolutely no right to make us feel guilty about activities that our consciences tell us are moral."

You see, they know that if they leave the Church, they will be nothing special-just another gaggle of splinter groups in the great world supermarket of churches. But like parasites, they seek to drain the "host" of its vitality for their own purposes. Also like parasites, the dissenters have gradually burrowed their way into the very structure of the Church. (Adapted from an article by Karl Keating.)

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