Introduction

If we knew who we were, we would act differently!

We published our Declaration on January 25, 2009, a symbolic day—the 50th anniversary of Blessed John XXIII’s call for the Second Vatican Council.  Response has been overwhelming—and the Planning Committee has been steadily engaged in “forming our planning community and determining how we will operate,” making logistical arrangements, talking and thinking about the questions that were raised about our use of the words “inclusive” and “Catholic” in our name and materials, and creating a structure that will permit many more to have voice and hands in our work.  We were challenged to work with Catholic groups of dissimilar missions.  We tested the hypothesis that Catholic does indeed mean “universal” and imbedded in that concept is the imagery of a big tent where all are welcome.  We sent out letters to Catholic groups across the country; some demonstrated enthusiastic interest, and a request for involvement; others, fearful of hierarchical recriminations, asked to be kept informed on an “anonymous” list; some objected to our vision of the responsibilities of all the Baptized; and, others chose not to respond at all.

As interest grew and numbers began to swell, we asked ourselves what collection of apostles were we gathering together to discuss the future of the Church.  Since any reference to apostles describes them as messengers, ambassadors and missionaries, we worked to define this message.  Is there a mission that we all could embrace as common ground?  Our Declaration was the product of that thinking and individuals and organizations began to sign on in affirmation.  That was the first step.

We then turned to the question: “What does it mean to be a member of the ACC and a Catholic?”   At our meeting in April, we adopted a statement on Membership and one on what it means to be Catholic.  Both of these were adopted unanimously and are printed under “Membership” on this website. These are not without controversy—nor are they final—but we offer them as our best present thinking of where we are at this time.

The vision of Vatican II remains before us as we continue our work together with the unfulfilled hope of needed reform to bring all of the Baptized into full Church.  Church is both individual and community—and in both, as is the wont of Americans, we look for rights and corresponding responsibilities of the members of that Community we call Church.  Thus, in early May (2009), the Planning Committee adopted an initial drafting of a Catholic Bill of Rights and Responsibilities.  It has gone through several re-drafts since, and will continue to do so, up through the Council gathering in Detroit in June of 2011. The most current version follows this introduction.  We invite you to review our work on the CBRR—and ask questions of yourself and your community: if these are (or were) the principles under which my Church operated, how would it change the way I look at Church?  How would it change (or have changed) my life?  And do these principles challenge me to engage in the personal conversion that Baptism means—and of which Eucharist periodically reminds?

The publication of the CBRR on the website was controversial.  Although it was unanimously adopted as a “personal statement,” some questioned whether we should be “leading” on these issues or “providing opportunities for many Catholic voices before publication.  We invite respectful and thoughtful comments in the Forums that are available on a corollary site on the ACC Assemblies Community Network. We intend to encourage discussion and development of the themes suggested by these principles at local and regional “listening sessions”  before our National Event at Pentecost 2011.

A CATHOLIC BILL OF RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES (DRAFT)

To be human is to have rights.  These rights are not earned or given.  They belong to the very fact of our existence.  Life is one of these; freedom, another.

If life and freedom are rights, then all that is necessary to sustain them are rights: shelter and nourishment, health and work, education and leisure.

None of these rights is absolute.  One may not exercise them in such a manner that other people are exploited.  The exercise of rights requires fulfillment of responsibilities to our neighbors.

Citizens of the United States are particularly conscious of their rights. Those rights are written into the very constitution of this nation.  We know what these are: speech and peaceful assembly, dissent and due process, the choice to believe or not, freedom of the press and protection from cruel and unusual punishment, voting and the presumption of innocence.

When one decides to become a Catholic, one brings all these human rights into the Church.  The Church has a solemn obligation to protect these and not to violate them.  When one is a Catholic in the United States, the Church is obliged to safeguard those rights which define what it is to be a citizen–unless they are incompatible with Catholicism.  One must not be told that one becomes a Catholic at the cost of being less an American.  We cannot declare that fundamental rights have no place in the Church of Christ.

Church administrators must not tell us that there is no longer freedom of speech or dissent; of assembly or due process when one enters the Church.  This is so clearly wrong; a crime in its own right, that Canon Law makes provision for the articulation of these rights.

It was once the very suspicion that one could not be genuinely a citizen and fully Catholic that led this country to fear the emergence of Catholics in US politics.  It was not until Blessed John XXIII, John F. Kennedy, and Vatican II that these fears finally subsided.

We often hear that the “Church is not a democracy.”  This is demonstrably not true: ecumenical councils, papal elections and the election of religious superiors occur regularly.  The first Ecumenical Council in 325 declared that no priest was validly ordained unless the community made the selection.  Popes and bishops were chosen by the people at large.  Fundamentally, Catholic doctrine maintains that the Spirit is given to all and that baptism makes every Catholic equal.  In addition, there is strong evidence that in the early Church women were deacons, priests, and bishops.

Distinctions between clergy and laity are functional and arbitrary.  Their value is always subordinate to the baptismal equality which gives all Catholics the priesthood, the right to the Eucharist, and full status in the community.

Christ did not preach a Gospel of privilege and priorities, of entitlements, and of lesser or greater discipleships.  Christ did not proclaim that the Reign of God was made up of those whose right to speech or due process or presumption of innocence would now be curtailed.

The Reign of God had its charter in the beatitudes, its constitution in the Good News Jesus proclaimed; its credential in the injunction that we love one another.

In light of these principles and precepts, we, mindful of our baptism, eager to be fully citizens of the United States and thoroughly Catholic, articulate this Bill of Rights and Responsibilities as a way of defining who we are and of declaring the mission of the American Catholic Council.  This Council looks to the recognition of these rights and to their implementation—here and throughout the world.

Catholic Bill of Rights and Responsibilities

1. Every Catholic must be authentic in the integrity of one’s own personhood as normed by the rights of conscience and the needs of the community.
2. Every Catholic, by virtue of baptism, has the right and responsibility to truly Christian community, to pastoral leadership that respects the individual believer, and to Eucharist which is a sacramental celebration of God’s love and presence.
3. Every Catholic has the right to be selected for ministerial leadership of the community and responsibility of responding to the call if the choice of the community and the charisms of the individual lead in this direction.
4. Authenticity and conscience demand that freedom of expression and freedom to dissent, freedom of assembly and freedom from arbitrary accusation and rejection, be safeguarded.
5. All the baptized have the right to all the sacraments and this presumption is always in their favor and never compromised by standards extrinsic to the nature of the sacrament.
6. All the baptized have the right to their reputation, integrity, and the right to resist institutional Church policies which seek to annul these.
7. The baptized and their communities can only be protected with a separation of executive, legislative and judicial powers in the Church and with an effective voice for all constituencies in the selection of Church administrators and leaders.
8. Every baptized Catholic has a meaningful role to play, through sensus fidelium, in the interpretation of the Gospel, the Church’s Tradition, and the Church’s structure.
9. Catholics have the right to summon and speak in a structured and legal assembly where their different voices can be heard and heeded.  Since an ecumenical council is the highest deliberative body in the Church, these councils must be summoned at regular intervals automatically, and must accord adequate and proportionate voting rights to all the substantial and divergent constituencies in the Church.
10. Church administrators shall not adopt any rule which restricts the rights and responsibilities of the baptized and their communities.

January 2010