by Robert McClory, CTA board member

When Bishop Tom Gumbleton spoke at the CTA conference last November, he was applauded over and over again and given a standing ovation at the end. Some 3,000 people heard him summon CTA to develop a "new five-year plan of action and justice in the world" to replace the "U.S. bishops' own plan which went down the tubes about 1979 or 1980." Gumbleton did not talk about women's ordination or birth control or the rights of gay Catholics -- or any of the other issues with which CTA has become so much identified in the media.

He didn't need to. He knows where we stand on our church reform agenda. But he knows we are an organization committed to justice in society as well as in the church. In fact, that's the reason CTA is so stubborn and pushy about church reform: so that the Catholic Church can become a credible sign to the world when it talks about nuclear weapons and welfare reform and just wages and the rights of oppressed minorities.

Gumbleton knows this and so did the cheering crowd. But hardly anyone outside CTA does. In much of the press coverage and in the minds of traditional (and even many mainline) Christians, CTA is an organization of contentious dissidents and rebels. We are the people who want change, demand change, the people who challenge established authority and make trouble in parishes and dioceses, who contradict the teachings of the hierarchy, even of the pope. They see us in this harsh, negative, judgmental light because they do not see Call To Action in any other light. So it's easy to overlook the original mandate: a reformed church for the sake of a reformed world.

To be sure, CTA has promoted social justice through projects like sending clothing and supplies to war-torn Nicaragua and its dramatizations of the bishops' letters on peace and the economy. At every annual conference speakers and workshops deal with racism, sexism, homophobia, social inequality and the domination of the West over the rest of the world. And there's no question that thousands of CTA members are deeply invested in their own communities with local justice issues or with larger ones through groups like Amnesty International, Bread for the World or Pax Christi. Still, CTA as such is not identified with the struggle for justice and against oppression in the world. Since Gumbleton's talk, the CTA board has reflected on this missing dimension, and letters to the office demonstrate the concern and restlessness of our constituents.

Bishop Gumbleton recently told CTA News that he finds it "so distressing" that CTA should regularly be portrayed as the gathering of religious malcontents. "When the organization is too much identified with church reform," he said, "it becomes too inward for me." And, he added, "Just look to our beginnings!"

Back during the bishops' synod of 1971 (which spawned the original CTA conference in Detroit), said Gumbleton, Pope Paul VI called on the church to address the larger society not in condemnation but in critical collaboration, and to address its own structures too, lest it be accused of hypocrisy. That is part-and-parcel of what CTA is, Gumbleton said, and work for justice should be clearly visible as an organizational priority. He suggested a first step might be a new look at those pastoral letters of the 1980s on peace and the economy. Perhaps there, he said, we might find guidance and direction.

Abolishing nuclear weapons
In his CTA talk Gumbleton proposed several projects for consideration. One of these, Abolition 2000, promotes the gradual elimination of all nuclear weapons from the face of the earth and calls for a major convention of all nations by the year 2000 to determine the practical steps. The movement is battling the notion that the proposed Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty will achieve abolition; in fact, it would only bar explosive testing, thus allowing technologically advanced nations to continue developing their nuclear arsenal through more sophisticated testing methods unavailable to lesser countries. (See the information on the right.)

Other Gumbleton proposals dealt with support for just wages in every American industry, a move to eliminate sweatshops and child labor exploitation in the United States and abroad (perhaps through a boycott of offending garment manufacturers), and a campaign to restructure or cancel the debts of the poorest nations to commemorate the start of a new millennium.

At this point we need the input and advice of our membership. How can CTA become more clearly visible for what it really is? How do we address the above issues, as individuals, as an organization, or as regional affiliates? What other activities, organizations and movements are out there that can energize our people without diluting the necessary thrust for church reform? Some actions and resources are listed on this page. Write, fax or e-mail your ideas to Margaret McClory at CTA News; they will be taken seriously because the problems we face as an organization and as a society are serious.
CTA News, 2135 W. Roscoe, Chicago, IL 60618. Fax: 773-404-1610.