Call to Action

Call to Action (CTA) is an American organization that advocates a variety of changes in the Catholic Church. Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re of the Congregation for Bishops said in 2006 that some of CTA's views are "in contrast" with Catholic faith, and there has been considerable controversy about the organisation from the start. The Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska has placed the group under the ban of excommunication within the diocese, and several other bishops have censured the organization.

In 1971, Pope Paul VI wrote that the laity of the Catholic Church should "take up as their own proper task the renewal of the temporal order". He further wrote that, "it is to all Christians that we address a fresh and insistent call to action." In anticipation of the American bi-centennial, the bishops of the United States held a "Call to Action Conference" in Detroit, Michigan in 1976.

At the conclusion of the three-day conference, the 1,340 delegates voted that the Catholic Church should "reevaluate its positions on issues like celibacy for priests, the male-only clergy, homosexuality, birth control, and the involvement of every level of the church in important decisions," though they never explicitly proposed changing the Church's position on these issues.

Russell Shaw describes the conference as "a raucous, controversial, non-representative dud." Many bishops were unhappy with the results.

As a result, the Call to Action organization that was born out of the Detroit conference was run by laity. Based in Chicago, it takes its name from the original conference. A conference of over 400 people was held in October 1978, and Chicago Call To Action was launched as a local organization.

The Call To Action community seeks to empower lay Catholics to use their beliefs and lived experiences for change within the Catholic Church. Its goals include 1) women's ordination, 2) an end to mandatory priestly celibacy, 3) changes in the church's teaching on a variety of sexual matters, a 4) change to the way the church is governed, and 5) racial justice.

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