May 2002

News Items

New WOC billboards

CTA Michigan has two "Ordain Women" billboards on I-94 in the Detroit area, and will hold a public witness at the local ordination May 18. CTA Pittsburgh has a similar billboard in their city. WOC supporters have had a billboard up in St. Louis since late January.

 

COR groups issue reform demands

Eighteen groups in Catholic Organizations for Renewal, including CTA, released a joint statement on the clergy abuse crisis May 6. Drafted at a COR meeting Apr. 26-28 in Virginia, the "Analysis of a Crisis" says the real problem is the abuse of power. It demands justice for the victims, opening priesthood, democratic structures, financial accountability, celebration rather than demonization of sexuality, and an end to all church discrimination . against homosexuals, married priests, the divorced- remarried, and many more. Read the full text and list of signers at www.cta-usa.org

 

Boston Tea Party?

From the CTA e-mailbag in April: History remembers well a time when a bunch of Bostonians, angry with the behavior of their leaders, dumped tea into a cold harbor. Their protest changed the world. Perhaps it is tea time again. Starting this Sunday, and continuing through to the bishops. meeting in June, angry Catholics should voice their outrage with church leadership by including a tea bag in their Sunday envelope. The symbolism is obvious. We stand with Boston and we call upon the bishops to issue a comprehensive national order stating that all abuse must be reported to the police. Perhaps, when the tea outweighs the twenties, the Church will listen to the voices in the pews. It all started in Boston.

Bridget Pratt

 

80,000 in D.C. peace actions
Young adults were prominent in four days of peace marches and protests in Washington Apr. 19- 22. Chicago area marchers included Monica McLaughlin, CTAers Pam Horan- Bussey and son Nicholas, and CTA Next Generation member Anthony Nicoterra. With a slogan, "Stop the War At Home and Abroad," marchers opposed the disproportionate violence of the U.S. war on terrorism in Afghanistan, abridgement of civil liberties in the U.S. since 9/11, and the exacerbation of violent civil war by the U.S. under Plan Colombia. Other causes were closing the School of the Americas, and opposing the policies of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

 

Over 400 celebrate with CTA Nebraska

Some 410 CTA stalwarts from 23 states rallied in Lincoln, Neb., Apr. 5-6 in solidarity with the local members of CTA Nebraska still suffering under their 1996 excommunication by Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz. Leaders of 17 regional CTA chapters from San Diego to New England also met in Lincoln to show support. Against a backdrop of national headlines about the clergy sexual abuse crisis, Joan Chittister told the CTA crowd, "People are looking to us to expel the demons in a wounded and wounding church." Bob McClory heartened his audience with stories from "Faithful Dissenters," his book about figures in church history who spoke out for needed reforms -- and got results. Tom Fox of the National Catholic Reporter -- which first broke the pedophilia scandals in the early 1980s -- made specific recommendations for bishops and dioceses, including "a complete audit" of all allegations regarding priests, public accounting of the money spent settling cases, and transparency about where the money came from.