by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
(June 3, 2008) The co-founders of Call to Action, a group of dissident lay Catholics dedicated to opposing Church teaching on life and family issues, have issued a nationwide call for newer and younger leadership after announcing plans to retire in September.
Call to Action (CTA) co-founders Dan and Sheila Daley announced their plans to retire in a recent letter to members in which they thanked them for their support of CTA and “its vision of a more just church and society.”
“Inspired by the 1976 U.S. Bishop’s Call To Action Conference in Detroit, this powerful movement has grown from a handful of Chicago activists to more than 25,000 Catholics throughout the U.S. and Canada,” the Daleys wrote. “Although our work for Church renewal is far from over, we have decided it is time to retire from our positions as Co-Executive Directors of CTA USA.”
Sheila Daly has not been able to work full-time since suffering serious injuries in a July 2, 2006 car accident. While her health was a factor in the decision, the Daleys, both 65, believed this was the time to “pass the baton” to newer and younger members. Unfortunately, there are few to be found among their graying membership comprised of mostly former clergy, feminist nuns and homosexuals..
CTA was founded in 1976 by the Daleys, a former priest and a former nun, who capitalized on the post-Vatican II era of activism to publicly question the Church’s position on issues such as artificial contraception, abortion, women’s ordination, celibacy for priests, and homosexuality.
“It was a lot of people like us who were trying to figure out: How do you live out your Christian commitment in this contemporary world?” Sheila Daley told the Chicago Tribune on May 31. “We had tried traditional religious life as options and found those didn’t function for us. So this was really a way of trying to search out a new model.”
CTA quickly became a breeding ground for dissenters, spawning groups such as Catholics For a Free Choice, Voice of the Faithful, Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests and the pro-homosexual New Ways Ministry.
In March, 1996, Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska excommunicated diocesan members of CTA, writing that the group’s goals and actions were “totally incompatible with the Catholic faith.”
Although CTA appealed the decision to the Vatican, the Bishop’s decree was upheld. The Apostolic Signatura, the Catholic Church’s supreme tribunal and the highest judicial authority after the Pope himself, said CTA and other dissident groups were “causing damage to the Church of Christ” and that the Bishop’s action “was properly taken within your competence as pastor of that diocese.”
Some believe the Daley retirement, coupled with their own dwindling membership, may be ushering in the “end times” for CTA. Their few young members, whom they refer to as Next Generation or “Next Gen,” are still trying to attract newer and younger members.
Nicole Sotelo, 30, CTA’s program coordinator, said NextGen members recently created a group on Facebook, the popular Internet meeting place. They also launched a new blog for young Catholics in May at youngadultcatholics-blog.com.
“I think many young Catholics have not found the church to be a welcoming place, and they have left. So we’re trying to reach them,” Sotelo told the Chicago Tribune.
She said future battles for CTA will focus on monitoring sexual abuse reforms, fighting racism in the church and protecting the environment, which is the theme for this year’s CTA convention, to be held Nov. 7-9 in Milwaukee.
Although there are certainly many reasons why the group is not attracting new members, Rev. Thomas Reese, senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Woodstock Theological Center, opined that it could be because younger Catholics are simply choosing to leave the Church rather than stay and try to “reform” it.
“What we’re seeing today with Catholics under 40 is, frankly, the reason they’re not joining groups like Call To Action is not because they agree with the bishops. It’s because they don’t care,” he told the Chicago Tribune. “Younger people are simply leaving the church, rather than stay and try to reform it.”
CTA currently has 25,000 members in the U.S. and Canada.
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