We have studied your feedback, especially the many, many inquiries crying “What’s next?” The National Planning Committee is striving to be good stewards of the mission you have entrusted to us by taking time to discern and deliberate those “next steps.”  Although the original focus when we were conceived nearly three years ago was only the Detroit Pentecost gathering, we have since come to realize that there is a “place” for ACC in the larger landscape of the church reform movement.

Our initial aim was to hold an event that might serve as a wake-up call to the baptized on the blessings of Vatican II, and to celebrate that moment in history 50 years ago.  Our goal was to model the vision and promise of that renewed Church and to focus upon the Rights and Responsibilities we are called to live as adult Catholics. By all accounts,that event was a resounding success and will likely be looked upon as a Watershed Moment in the unfolding history of the Catholic Church in the United States. (See Newsletter Archive, 10/31/11).

We are now able to respond with a new commitment, a re-newed sense of mission, and several new and bold directions. This issue of our newsletter overviews some these key new initiatives that are now underway.

• Action #1: New CBRR Listening Session Template;
• Action #2: Redrafting ACC Mission, Goals and Values;
• Action #3: Nonviolence Institute;
• Action #4: Resourcing Intentional Eucharistic Communities (IECs);

On the administrative front, we are pleased to report that we have secured a renewed commitment from the majority of members on the original National Planning Committee who will continue to serve in that capacity. In addition, we have created two part-time staff positions:  Administrative Coordinator (Sheila Peiffer) and Communications Coordinator (John Frank).

The American Catholic Council is in full swing and we need your help for the work ahead! Blessings to you in 2012!

In gratitude and humility,

– Janet Hauter       Chair, ACC National Planning Committee

In our last newsletter we announced plans to sponsor an Institute to bring together leaders in the church reform movement not only to study the spirituality and practice of nonviolent action for change, but also to do the necessary social analysis of power systems within the institutional Roman Catholic Church. In the coming months we will post to our website an application form for participation in an initial cohort of participants.

The “course” is in development and will be delivered online. It will be substantially grounded in the writings of Gene Sharp, often cited as the father of the Arab Spring. Dr. Sharp is founder of the Albert Einstein Institution, whose mission is to advance the study and use of strategic nonviolent action for conflict transformation and social change. Sharp is Professor Emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. For nearly thirty years he held a research appointment at Harvard University’s Center for International Affairs. He is the author of numerous books, including The Politics of Nonviolent Action (1973), Gandhi as a Political Strategist (1979), Social Power and Political Freedom (1980), Making Europe Unconquerable (1985), Civilian-Based Defense (1990), and From Dictatorship to Democracy (1993) His most recent book is Waging Nonviolent Struggle: Twentieth Century Practice and Twenty-First Century Potential.

We believe that those of us involved in church reform can learn much from the shift from “dictatorship to democracy” (as Sharp would say) that has been a consistent marker of social progress over the last 300 years, and that is most evident in phenomena like the Women’s movement in the early 20th century, the Civil Rights movement in the latter half of the 20th century, and the Arab Spring in our own time.

The experience of nonviolent action in the political arena shows us shows us that such tactics can succeed because they attack the institutional dictatorship where it is weakest. We believe the same applies to “ecclesiastic dictatorship” that often defines the power systems within the institutional church. The church “institution” must be studied to determine its weaknesses. And from that, a “Grand Strategy” might surface to hasten the day of a new Catholic Spring, born of the power of the Holy Spirit unleashed among the People of God.

The Institute’s format and schedule is still in development and will likely take the form of 6-8 online sessions conducted over several months, ending with a face-to-face weekend retreat. One of the expected outcomes will be the drafting of strategies for coordinated non-violent action calling for targeted changes in the church’s structure and governance, mirroring some of the changes called for at ACC In Detroit and the Listening Sessions leading up to it. (See Detroit Proceedings).

You can share your reactions and ideas for the developing Institute and its projected outcomes by posting comments to the Nonviolence Institute Discussion Forum on the ACN.

Prompts for Thanksgiving Table Talk

As we approach this season of Thanksgiving, it is essential to name the things we are grateful for and why they impact our lives.  On behalf of the Planning Committee of the American Catholic Council (ACC), we are sustained by your continued testimony that our gathering in Detroit this past Pentecost Weekend invigorated attendees with a new understanding of their rights and responsibilities as adult Catholics.

In Retrospect: We took the summer to digest the varied data provided from that memorable weekend in order to determine trends and actionable directions. Those deliberations have reinforced our collective realization that governance continues to be the root cause of the ongoing crises in our Church.  We remain convinced that focusing on solutions that impact leadership and governance structures of the church will yield historic changes.

Early this Fall, the Planning Team concurred that this movement could not simply be a one time event that fades into the history books as a marker event. And so we began to discuss how this movement, with no prior  history, no staff, no office and no guaranteed future funding could define itself and its future.  This was no easy challenge when we were bombarded with calls, emails, notes and letters all asking what our next steps would be.  Because we left the future open to the call of the Spirit and the Sensus Fidelium, we were “listening” but the call was not yet crystal clear.

Toward An Emerging Catholic Spring: Patience has not been consistently one of our virtues, yet in recent months, a future step has emerged with clarity. We are pleased this Thanksgiving to give you a foretaste for your dinner conversations: We are planning to launch an online Institute on Nonviolent Action to be framed by a social analysis of power systems in the institutional Catholic Church. We hope to engage help from the Albert Einstein Institution, the home of Gene Sharp who has been heralded as the father of the Arab Spring.

Might it be that we can stimulate what some have been calling an emerging Catholic Spring? Our pilot initiative will review the theory and practice on nonviolent action, ground it in Gospel imperatives, and then seek to integrate nonviolent methods into a national action plan.We have presented this new direction to a national association of reform groups and debuted it in a caucus held at the Call to Action conference in Milwaukee earlier this month.  Receptivity was exceptionally high.

We are currently reviewing available dates with the Einstein Institution’s staff and are in preparation for the project to begin early next year.  More information will be forthcoming as it becomes available, but our solution-driven goal is to call for a  coordinated action around one or two initiatives that will have national, regional and local applicability and impact.

We are grateful to you for your patience as we discerned this direction, challenged ourselves to take this movement to the next step, and boldly step out into an unknown future with a strong belief that we have been called.  We hope this news finds you well and that the holidays provide you with the rest and refreshment needed to find yourself called to step out in faith to join us in our efforts to act as the Church we have been called to be.

In gratitude and humility,

– Janet Hauter & John Hushon
Co-Chairs, American Catholic Council, Inc. 

Some 120 people participated in an ACC “caucus” during CTA earlier this month.  After a brief overview of the agenda, John Frank asked for one word impressions of what happened in Detroit back in June. Some phrases that “popped” were: Joy; Jump; Enthusiasm; Plant the seed without seeing the flowers; time to be adults; red stoles; energy; empowerment.

Janet Hauter then presented a summary of the significance of Detroit and ongoing energy to promote a Vatican II spirituality to sustain our commitment to church reform. For some of those related insights, see the article ACC Watershed Moment in our last newsletter (Oct. 31, 2011)

Underscoring ACC’s emerging niche in grassroots organizing, Sheila Peiffer then moderated a mini “listening session”, where participants talked in small groups about what ACC could do to nurture the grassroots of church reform and how it might give support to local leadership and local organizing. Some key responses included the following:

• Use the DVDs from Detroit to educate others and engage local parish priests; publish discussion guides to go with them;
• Expand the Assemblies Community Network and encourage people to use it as a means to get connected in local communities and organize across the country.
• Publish resources to further education around the Catholic Bill of Rights and Responsibilities (CBRR) and other resources that ACC has produced, including the Report on the Listening Sessions leading up to Detroit.
• Provide a Speakers Bureau to resource continued education in large and small towns across the country;
• Provide resources to promote further growth of Intentional Eucharistic Communities (IECs);
• Engage the secular media;

John Hushon then spoke of the emerging plan for an Institute on Nonviolence and Church Reform. The aim will be to develop a strategic plan for Nonviolent Action to effect the changes we seek in church governance and leadership. The pilot program, to begin this Spring, will consist of three phases: (1) social/structural analysis of Catholic Church power systems and vulnerabilities in its hierarchical structure; (2) training in non-violence theory and methods; and (3) development of strategies to implement these methods in specific targeted actions to produce positive reform in the Church. The plan is to have the Institute operate as a university type “webinar” for up to 40 people that would culminate in an in-person retreat in the late Spring. If proven successful, subsequent institutes would follow.

The ACC Caucus at CTA concluded with a post-session later that afternoon where John Frank provided a tutorial on how to use the interactive communication features of the Assemblies Community Network.

(Compiled by Sheila Peiffer, with thanks to Janet Hauter, Tom Kyle, and Margaret Mary Moore)