Bishop John D'Arcy's recent decision to oust Michiana Call to Action from Catholic Church facilities has had the effect of publicly labeling our group as "dissident" or "anti-Catholic."

Michiana CTA (members), however, are very solidly involved in their churches and actively seeking to live the Christianity in which we express profound belief. Being "dissident" then, has actually posed a challenge unfamiliar to most of our members.

Michiana CTA, a local affiliate of the 20 year-old National CTA with headquarters in Chicago, promotes a vision of church based on the documents of the Second Vatican Council. Both the national and local groups seek ways to promote an ecumenical dialogue on social justice issues, particularly in the way we are "church" with and for each other in our various faith communities.

Bishop D'Arcy's limited communication with Michiana CTA has indicated that his objection to our group is based only on one issue: our group advocates more open/public discussion on women's ordination in the Roman Catholic Church. From our perspective, however, this is only a small part of our much larger vision of church. Yet, we fully own our position on this issue.

A proclamation by the pope came out this fall stating authoritatively that the final word on not ordaining women to the Roman Catholic priesthood is "definitive." And later it was pronounced as "infallible." A controversy followed these proclamations in many prominent Catholic media. The proclamations by the pope were not seen as following a valid procedure or form that is usual and expected when such proclamations occur. Thus, there are legitimate grounds for seeing these proclamations as not reflecting the best church traditions of how it exercises authority.

Bishop D'Arcy is acting within his rights and role as bishop, even as he appears to interpret the pope's intention in these documents as infallible in itself. Other Roman Catholic bishops, however, have chosen a more pastoral response to these same proclamations. Bishops who actually belong to CTA have articulated a long view of church tradition, a collaborative view of how church authority operates, and have considered the unrest among a significant number of faithful Catholics in their diocese caused by these controversial papal documents.

National CTA has conferred with canon lawyer James Coriden and learned that the church law and Catholic tradition do give a legitimate basis for Catholics to dissent with church teaching/law. "Doubtful laws do not oblige (canon 14)," Coriden advised the group. "They are worse than no law at all because of the confusion they engender."

In Nebraska, for example, some CTA members excommunicated by Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz publicly continue to receive communion in their parish churches (not having given up their affiliation with CTA), after the May 15 deadline. This carefully discerned decision was not an act of defiance by CTA members, but rather an act of faith in the best aspirations of Catholic teaching, law and tradition. Bishop Bruskewitz did not collaborate with the greater body of bishops, and no other bishop came forward to support his decision for punishing CTA members with the ultimate Catholic penalty -- excommunication.

Catholic tradition has taught that God works from the grass roots upwards, as well as from the top downwards. This is why, as Michiana CTA members, we find ourselves called just now to be "dissidents." After all was prayerfully considered, we feel we must stand with our belief that continued dialogue is the best way to seek resolution to the creative tension this "gender controversy" has caused, and the issues of church authority it has raised among the faithful. Silence will not help us to reconcile the differences we all must face, either as lay people or clergy, with love and compassion, in order to grow beyond them.