News Releases
American Catholic Council
PO Box 3106
Barrington IL, 60010
americancatholiccouncil.org
Media Contact: Sheila Peiffer
Em: Sheia_Peiffer@yahoo.com
(518) 334-6076
NOTE: Media accreditation is available; Contact johnhushon@aol.com to register. ACC will host a press room at Cobo Center during the Council. Please address questions prior to the Council to co-chairs Janet Hauter at jmwhauter@aolc.om or John Hushon at johnhushon@aol.com.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (June 5, 2011)
Grassroots Movement of Catholics Declares
Catholic Bill of Rights and Responsibilities
Catholics from all over the United States, including representatives from Canada, Germany, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, France, Spain, Mexico, Italy, and Portugal, will convene an American Catholic Council in Detroit the weekend of June 10-12, 2011.
After holding nearly a hundred local “listening sessions” around the country during the past eighteen months, attendees will gather to consider the state of the Church, and review the promises of Vatican II to include the People of God in a shared-governance, transparent and inclusive model of the Church. The listening sessions were instrumental in developing a “Catholic Bill of Rights and Responsibilities” which reflects what many Catholics yearn for in their Church.
And what do these faithful Catholics want?
- Revitalized parish and diocesan councils;
- A voice in the selection of pastors and bishops;
- Optional celibacy;
- Open and meaningful progress on the role of women in the Church;
- Availability of full sacramental life for all who wish it;
- Renewed emphasis on conscience and morality;
- Effective resolution of the abuse crisis, including holding perpetrators and their enablers responsible;
- Sincere ecumenism and theological freedom of inquiry;
- Financial transparency;
- A recommitment to social justice that responds to the many problems of the poor, hungry and homeless in our world;
A full weekend of worship, education and dialogue will bring people together to build plans for a renaissance of Vatican II in the Church today. Vatican II brought needed reforms to the Church but it has not yet been fully implemented and there is a growing tendency among some to return to pre-Vatican II norms. Attendees believe that Vatican II holds solutions to the ills plaguing the Church today, including the exodus of millions of “cradle” Catholics.
Join this historic gathering and hear world renowned, Vatican II peritus (expert) and theologian, Dr. Hans Kung; Benedictine religious leader, NCR columnist, and well-known speaker, Sr. Joan Chittister;
globally recognized speaker, priest and theologian, Dr. Anthony Padovano; well-known author and professor, Dr. Jeanette Rodriquez; Boston Globe columnist, Kennedy Center scholar and author, James Carroll; and author and theologian, Dr. Matthew Fox. All will speak on aspects of the spirit, vision and hope of the People of God as captured in the themes of Vatican II.
Breakout Sessions will promote dialogue and foster action plans for renewing the Church. Facilitators of breakout sessions include well-known authors, professors, and Catholic reform leaders. Attendees can network with a diverse representation of people and organizations developing solutions that have local, regional, and national implications. The Council will conclude with the first performance of a participatory Pentecost Mass of the Spirit with chorus, brass chorale, and congregation.
Registration and additional information is available at www.americanCatholicCouncil.org Walk-on registrations (daily or for the entire Council) are welcome at Detroit’s Cobo Convention Center, near Wayne Hall at the Registration Desk, Friday, June 10 from 4 to 8 pm and Saturday, June 11 from 8 to 12 noon.
# # #
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
American Catholic Council
PO Box 3106
Barrington IL, 60010
americancatholiccouncil.org
Contact: Linda Pinto
(c) 973.903.6170
(o) 570.296.5326
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (5/10/11)
Catholics Speak Out in Nationwide Listening Sessions
Barrington, IL: A key component of the inaugural convening of the American Catholic Council, to unfold in Detroit on Pentecost Weekend June 10-12, will be the release of a report on nearly 100 local and regional Listening Sessions across the country over the past 18 months.
These sessions have taken place in diverse settings, from parish halls and living rooms, to hotel conference rooms and retreat centers. Each has been an occasion where the faithful have had the opportunity to dialogue and listen to the promptings of the Spirit as they prayerfully considered fundamental questions about the future of the Catholic Church. Many gathered out of a sense of urgency and a shared sense of responsibility to build a better Church, and one grounded in the vision and promise of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65).
The overwhelming issue echoed throughout Listening Sessions, is the hierarchy’s unwillingness to enter into dialogue with the laity about real issues which affect the lives and faith of real people in the church. From the perspective of the vast majority of participants in these listening sessions, the hierarchy is increasingly remote, disengaged and irrelevant to the faith lives of rank and file Catholics. This suggests a fundamental crisis of leadership in an increasingly dysfunctional institutional Church. Many see this failure to engage the diversity of the faithful as undermining the promise of a more inclusive Church that is central to the reforms called for by Vatican II. It is increasingly evident that the primary focus of the ACC when it convenes in Detroit will be to address issues of leadership, governance and structural reform.
These dialogues were informed by three fundamental tenets drawn from the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Vatican II).
- As baptized Catholics, all the faithful share in the ministry of Jesus, the Christ;
- Because all of us are the Church, the common sense of faithful Catholics (sensus fidelium) is a legitimate agent of the Holy Spirit and serves to inform Church practice and teaching, in tandem with Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium;
- As adult Catholics, we are called to nurture an informed conscience that is the final arbiter of our actions;
Preliminary data also demonstrates that the overwhelming majority of participants in the listening sessions love the church and do not wish to leave the church like the 30 million who have left in recent years. There is great concern that the spirit of Vatican II has been repressed.
The 2011 Detroit Council celebrates the upcoming 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council convened by Pope John XXIII and seeks to reinvigorate the Council’s reforms, which have been increasingly downplayed in recent years. These include openness to all peoples and cultures, collegial and responsible decision-making, the primacy of a well-formed conscience, and sincere ecumenism.
The ACC Listening Session process also recalls two years of similar sessions leading up to an historic gathering convened in Detroit in 1976 by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to implement Vatican II. Honoring the U.S Bicentennial year, that event 35 years ago recognized that many reforms called for by Vatican II mirrored foundational American principles of freedom of conscience, individual rights, and democratic practices, thus encouraging increased involvement of the laity in Church governance.
# # #
===========================================================================
OLDER PRESS RELEASES:
Contact: Jessica Lillie, votfpr@votf.org, (617) 558-5252, (617) 680-2131 cell
For Immediate Release
HISTORIC MOVE FOR VOTF AND U.S. CATHOLICS
VOTF instrumental in launching American Catholic Council
January 25, 2009 – Boston – In a move to unite U.S. Catholics, the newly formed American Catholic Council (ACC) called today for an historic assembly of the Catholic Church in the United States. Voice of the Faithful joins this call, spurred by evidence of serious deterioration in the life of the U.S. Church today.
“The way the Church is now is not the way it was meant to be,” says John Hushon, a VOTF board member who serves as the ACC co-chair. “The Gospels make it abundantly clear that Jesus envisioned a community that welcomes and encourages the gifts of all. The two-tiered clerical system that separates the ordained from the non-ordained was never meant to be, and it has caused enormous harm. Vatican II attempted to recapture the universal call to ministry, but this promise has not been fulfilled.”
The idea of a lay-convened gathering to recapture this promise has been championed for several years by VOTF president Dan Bartley and was formally endorsed by VOTF after consultation with its own members and member representatives. In addition, Board member Hushon and VOTF Vice President Janet Hauter are serving as the first co-chairs for the ACC.
To date, 55 individual Catholics—some sitting as representatives of Catholic reform organizations and others as theologian advisors and expert consultants—have joined the ACC’s organizing efforts. Included are prominent Catholics such as Sister Joan Chittister, OSB, well-known author on issues of contemporary spirituality; Robert Blair Kaiser, who writes extensively about Church reform; prominent theologian and author Dr. Paul Lakeland; professor of Catholic Thought and Interreligious Dialogue Dr. Len Swidler; and Chris Schenk, a Sister of Saint Joseph in Cleveland, who serves as Executive Director of FutureChurch.
FutureChurch, VOTF, and other organizations are in the process of formally endorsing the American Catholic Council Declaration for Reform and Renewal, which launches the call for a national council. The declaration was posted online Jan. 23, at www.americancatholiccouncil.org, to mark the 50th anniversary of Pope John XXIII’s call for a Second Vatican Council.
ACC aims to fulfill the promise of Vatican II to create a more responsive, accountable Church that calls on the active participation of its people and more closely models the American experience.
The assembly is scheduled to take place in Detroit in the fall of 2011—the 50th Anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and the 35th Anniversary of Cardinal Deardon’s “Call to Action,” which was designed to actualize the reforms of Vatican II for the United States Church.
