The We Are Church “referendum” has died an ugly death. Its demise occasioned rejoicing among faithful Catholics—and self-serving excuses from its dissident supporters.
The petition campaign, co-sponsored by Call to Action, Dignity, Corpus, Catholics for a Free Choice, and other extremist “Catholic” groups, originally announced it would present one million signatures to the Holy Father on Pentecost Sunday last year. But even with generous funding, sympathetic media coverage, and offering a dollar per signature, organizers garnered a pitiful 37,000 names—less than four percent of the goal and an insignificant .06 percent of U.S. Catholics.
The petition demanded a series of changes in the Church, including women and married priests, relaxation of moral standards, gay rights, and popular election of bishops. We Are Church’s national coordinator, Sister of Loretto Maureen Fiedler, said: “We had all this marvelous polling data, which we had had for decades, showing that three-quarters of U.S. Catholics want a married clergy, two-thirds want women priests, overwhelming percentages would like to return to the tradition of electing bishops, and so forth and so on. Well, we said [there are] 55–60 million Catholics, depending on how you count them. A million signatures should be a cinch, right? That’s what we thought. We had organizing kits; we had grassroots (efforts); we did full-page ads in NCR (the National Catholic Reporter), and in Sojourners, and in other publications; we had massive mailings; we did public collections in front of cathedrals, like St. Patrick’s in New York. In other words, we tried everything we possibly could, and I know—from you at the grass roots and us at the national level—we really gave it everything we had.”
Fiedler spoke during the November 14–16 Call to Action national conference in Detroit. She is co-director of the Quixote Center in Brentwood, Maryland, and of Catholics Speak Out, a project of the center pushing for change in the Church.
Did the We Are Church organizers learn from their failure? Do they now have a clue that practicing American Catholics reject their entire program, realizing it would divest Catholicism of moral authority and doctrinal solidity? Apparently not. Fiedler instead offered alibi after alibi:
The petition was too long, not “street friendly.” (It was still far shorter than the original German petition that inspired it.)
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Supporters were barred from the means of reaching the great mass of Catholics. “The major reason I think this didn’t fly—and the major reason we still have only have 37,000—is that most Catholics who would sign it still don’t know it exists,” she said.
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“We overestimated Catholic theological maturity, and underestimated the pietism of the Catholic laity,” said Fiedler. (This from one who decries the “elitism” of the Catholic hierarchy.)
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The call for gay and lesbian rights proved to be unacceptable to people who supported much of the rest of the petition.
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Many of the people who organizers had hoped would promote the petition drive in their parishes supposedly feared to do it. Fiedler said lay people, priests, and even bishops were afraid to support the campaign, fearing reprisals.
Comparing the contemporary Church with Central American governments, Fiedler said: “There’s no way to describe the political structure of our Church except to say that it is monarchical, it is certainly authoritarian, increasingly repressive, and it shows even a few signs unfortunately of efficiency in that regard.”
The We are Church drive was well-financed, Fielder acknowledged: “We were blessed with substantial grants.” Such funding allowed the group to place a full-page ad in Newsweek and to offer Catholic schoolchildren a dollar for each signature obtained. Despite substantial coverage on network TV, National Public Radio, and MSNBC, the petition drive was a failure from the start. “This did not take off in the United States. We did not get out of first gear,” Fiedler admitted. One factor that repulsed Catholic may have been CTA’s demand that “primacy of conscience” be stressed by the Church: “[A] lot of people saw this as a code word for abortion. We overestimated their adulthood and maturity.”
Defeated but evidently no wiser, Fiedler closed her remarks by saying that “a lot of people in this Church are waiting for a person in this Church to pass away.” It seems the dissidents themselves are in danger of “passing away.”
Just days after We Are Church delivered its 37,000 signatures to the Vatican, a group of U.S. and Canadian students submitted to Pope John Paul II petitions with more than 90,000 signatures pledging loyalty to the Church’s teachings and to the Holy Father himself. The “We Are Catholics” campaign began through the work of forty-four students at Seton Catholic High School in Manassas, Virginia. The students began their campaign as a countermeasure to the Call to Action coalition’s signature drive.
A sampling of the programs offered at the Call to Action conference gives some notion of why the group is hopelessly out of touch with mainstream Catholics:
“Praise the Spirituality of Catholic Women: A Feminist Liturgy—Diann L. Neu leads the celebration of a liturgy she has created to honor Catholic women for spiritual strength and creativity in finding meaning despite the difficulties of this historical time. Neu is a liturgist and psychotherapist and co-founder and co-director of WATER: Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual, in Silver Spring, Maryland.”
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“Women: Victims or Perpetrators?—Frances B. O’Connor, C.S.C. and Becky S. Drury debate the question: ‘Are women primarily responsible for their own oppression in the church today?’”
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“A Breath of Fresh Air: The Spirituality of the Beijing Conference—Gloria Rivera guides this look at the world through women’s eyes, as outlined in the Platform for Action that emerged from the 1995 U.N. Women’s Conference. She examines the impact of religious fundamentalism and conservatism on equality, development, and peace for women and celebrates women’s spirituality in global terms.”
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“Transforming Grace: Opening Body and Soul to God’s Sustaining Gifts Moved by the Spirit: A Performance—Sandra Rivera offers a participative workshop to explore the spirituality of St. John of the Cross with dance, movement, music, and song. Rivera explores the healing power of dance, weaving dances inspired by St. John of the Cross, La Virgén de Guadalupe, and the Puerto Rican poet Julia de Burgos.”
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“Ecofeminism: Spirituality and Justice—Rosemary Radford Ruether addresses themes related to her book Gaia and God. Ecology and feminism are linked, for the exploitation of nature and the domination of women have been interconnected symbolically and socially.”
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“Inclusive Priesthood: How to Get There from Here—Christine Schenk, C.S.J. anchors a panel . . . on the Future of Priestly Ministry which she coordinates for CTA and FutureChurch. Panelists are two pastors from the Episcopal Diocese of Buffalo, Judith Barrows, first woman ordained, and Harry Grace; Thomas Kreuder, married Roman Catholic priest and former Vincentian; and Ann Dougherty, adult religious education consultant working in women’s spirituality. Catch enthusiasm and strategies for the work of inclusivity. Schenk is director of FutureChurch, a coalition of parish-based Catholics concerned that Catholics will lose the Mass if nothing is done about the priest shortage.”
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“Earth is Waiting for a New Song: Liturgical Music for the Next Millennium—Kathy Sherman, C.S.J. shares, and leads participants in singing, worship music reflective of the wider theological vision that not only the human community, but the entire planetary community, is the Body of Christ.”
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“Peace Among Humans Through Peace with the Earth—Steve Torma blends science, mysticism, and church teaching to empower participants to integrate peace, justice, and ecological concerns. Today’s new understanding of peace/justice begins with seeing the Earth as a living organism and humanity as a global village. Peace is best achieved by securing justice for humans and the entire earth community. Torma is a resource person for the international creation spirituality movement. . . . He belongs to an eco-village recently formed in the North Carolina mountains.”
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“A New Testament Spirituality: Women Disciples, Witnesses, Pioneers Miriam Therese Winter serves up three helpings of the lives of women in the New Testament. . . . Winter is Professor of Liturgy, Worship, Spirituality, and Feminist Studies at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut. A Medical Mission Sister, she has a Ph.D. in liturgical studies and has published ten books, including WomanWord, WomanWisdom, and WomanWitness, a three-volume feminist lectionary and psalter featuring all the women of the Bible.”
The New Oxford Review, edited in Berkeley by Dale Vree, is known for its cheeky (and funny) advertisements. One of the ads, featuring a drawing of “Bozo” and decrying priests who engage in liturgical clownishness, appeared on the back cover of America, the Jesuit magazine. Apparently some readers, lacking a sense of humor, complained to the editor, who, in the November 1 issue, apologized for running the ad: “It has been our policy for some time not to accept such offensive advertisements from The New Oxford Review, but unfortunately in this instance there was an innocent mix-up between our advertising and editorial offices. It will not happen again, Deo Volente.” One of the complainers, Fr. William B. Padavick of Oberlin, Ohio, generously said, “I will not cancel my subscription for a perceived pecadillo,” but he added that “the real heresy today is found fight there with the thought-control gang who are desperately trying to split the Church from itself and from the real world”—which means that the “thought-control gang” should have its ads kicked out of respectable journals such as America. Sometimes, we have to be intolerant of tolerance.
The prior issue of America carried a letter from Christine Schenk, C.S.J. She opined: “I have [counseled] young women who agonize about how to maintain their integrity as female humans in a church that teaches that Jesus chose only male humans to be leaders, presiders, and decision makers. [Note that she speaks in terms of the structure of corporations or political parties.] Could this be one reason for the decline in female vocations to vowed religious life? Who in her right mind would align herself even more closely to an institution that proclaims its sexism is positively willed by Christ?” Sister Schenk belongs to a religious order that is operated on principles she approves of—and is dying. Her letter does not indicate whether she sees a connection.
Responding to a student-led petition, James Cardinal Hickey of Washington has called for Georgetown University display the crucifix in all classrooms and campus facilities. In the Catholic Standard newspaper he wrote: “Frankly, I can’t imagine why a university, run by the Society of Jesus and operating under a pontifical charter, would have to debate the issue.”
Jon Soucy, chairman of the Georgetown University Committee for Crucifixes in the Classroom, urges Catholics to make their views known to Georgetown’s president, Leo J. O’Donovan, S.J.“We are trying to get a crucifix put up on the wall of every classroom here at Georgetown. Georgetown’s administration is currently in the throes of trying to decide on the issue. We are running a petition drive to get signatures of people who are in support of crucifixes,” Soucy explains. ” We are trying to solicit letters from around the country in support of our effort . . . from everyone: publishers, bishops, priest, women religious, lay people, professors.” Letters should go to Jon Soucy, President, G.U. Committee for Crucifixes in the Classroom, 1416 36th St., N.W., Washington, DC 20007.
Actress Hunter Tylo went to court in November claiming she was dismissed from the prurient show “Melrose Place” because she was pregnant and refused to have an abortion. Her manager, Marvin Dauer, confirmed in his testimony that Tylo was told she could keep her job if she had an abortion. Tylo claims she brought the lawsuit to make sure no other actress would face similar pressure. “For a brief moment [which] I’m ashamed of, I considered having an abortion,” she said. “I considered it, and I’m ashamed, because I don’t believe in it. I look at my daughter walking now and I’m ashamed.”
A marathon charismatic revival based in Pensacola, Florida, has taken in millions of dollars, but leaders decline to reveal where the money is going. Besides leading expensive lifestyles, the ministers have set up their own non-profit corporations to sell revival-related merchandise—but they failed to collect sales taxes in most cases and have shaded the truth about the revival’s origin, the Pensacola News Journal reports.
The revival, now in its third year, is held five days a week at Brownsville Assembly of God and has attracted more than a million people since it began. Leaders have taken the revival to other cities, including Memphis, Tennessee, Anaheim, Toledo, Birmingham, St. Louis, and Dallas. Everywhere they appeal for money: “Reach into your wallets and pull out the biggest thing you can find,” urges the Rev. Carey Robertson, associate pastor. He suggests $100 is an acceptable figure. Robertson and other leaders assure the faithful, many on limited incomes, that the money goes to missions working to spread Christianity.
According to financial statements and Internal Revenue Service returns, only 2 percent, or $155,150 of the church’s $6.6 million annual budget goes to missions after evangelist Steve Hill takes out 16 percent, or about $1 million, for his Together in the Harvest Ministries. “If you wonder where the money is going, then don’t give,” Robertson told the News Journal. “Once it becomes a gift, it is ours to use. It is nobody’s business how we use it.”
Leaders have said the revival started spontaneously on Father’s Day in 1995, but a video of the first service and accounts from church members present indicate it had been planned in advance and orchestrated to become a large and long-running industry, the News Journal reported. The newspaper also found Hill’s autobiography and often-told tales of his outlaw past cannot be verified and are contradicted by police reports. Hill admitted he fictionalized part of his book for “impact.”
Lesbian activist Ellen DeGeneres recently hosted two children’s programs, “Sesame Street” and “Storytime,” carried on the Public Broadcasting System. DeGeneres, the star of the show “Ellen,” has objected to “viewer discretion” warnings about the show, which has featured the “coming out” of its main character, same-sex dates, and implied homosexual acts. “The point to the show is to let kids know there’s nothing wrong with being gay,” DeGeneres said.