Editorial: CTA and Election Year
Call To Action came to birth in 1977 to carry on the spirit of the U.S. Bishops' Call To Action Conference (Detroit, 1976) and its bicentennial theme: "With liberty and justice for all." Catholic social teaching principles from that event are at the heart of CTA, whether we're applying them to our society or to our own church. The same spirit breathes through our Call for Reform (Ash Wednesday, 1990): "...To be a clearer sign and a better servant to God's global family, our church must reform its own structures ... For the world's sake, let us make the church more faithful to its mission."
While our bi-monthly ChurchWatch covers church reform matters exclusively, this spring issue of CTA News focuses each year on the tough task of applying non-partisan Catholic social teaching to peace, justice and human rights issues in society, and in the election year religion-public policy debates. This is consistent with years of CTA peace/justice efforts: Quest for Peace efforts in Nicaragua ... performing arts productions on the Bishops' economics and peace pastorals, and on Dorothy Day ... a video funded by the Campaign for Human Development ...
Applying Gospel principles to particular issues, and to electoral candidates, means prudential, non-dogmatic choices -- judgment calls in which we don't always agree with the bishops, or with peace and justice activists, or even with each other. But we are all called to wrestle with making those judgments.
The institutional U.S. church still has great potential to make a difference in public policy and in private sector social outreach. That's why we keep pushing to reform the church. A church more just and inclusive to its own members is a more representative, informed and credible witness in the public forum.
The Sermon on the Mount calls us to a double task: to build the social gospel into the structure of tomorrow's church, and to practice it in our own lives.
May the power of Easter give us energy for the task ahead.
Call To Action News is one of three quarterly publications from Call To Action. For more information, contact:
Call To Action
2135 W. Roscoe
Chicago, IL 60618
(773/604-0400; fax 773/604-4719)
cta@cta-usa.org