Call to Action Conference 2015 back in Milwaukee

November 6-8, 2015 in at the Wisconsin Convention Center downtown.

Preliminary information here. Online registration opens next month.

Among the keynote speakers is Joan Chittister, OSB.

WisSJ article on Call To Action grievances with Madison diocese

Meh.  Read it if you want.  The real story I guess would be what the article doesn't say, liberals are excited to get a +Cupich-like appointment, and the Vatican has been going after "conservative" bishops - although clearly some of those moves have other mitigating factors.  Since Pope Francis - who is blind to American Church politics outside his immediate American advisers - could be influence by what he does not know, he could be unwittingly an agent of change he does not intend to make.  These fringe groups who see Francis as (to quote Cardinal Kasper) "not a liberal but a radical" obviously take great hope by the types of people of whom Francis has remade the Curia.

At any rate, Brent King does a nice job in his responses, which Doug Erickson posted in full.  I think Erickson does a decent job giving both sides a fair shake although a Call To Action letter isn't exactly news to me.

The kicker:

In 2008, after the local Call to Action group purchased an ad in the State Journal (signed by 36 people) to complain about Morlino, more than 500 people signed an open letter to the community backing the bishop, which also was published as an ad in the newspaper. The ad evolved into a website supporting Morlino, where 1,069 people have now signed the letter.

In most circles, including liberal Catholic circles, Call To Action is considered a punchline, not a serious group.   I mean... Call To Action.... really?

Call To Action Conference 2014 not in Milwaukee

[Updated] This year's conference is in Memphis.

Preconference Seminars include,

"1.02: King of Kings: A Spiritual Revival with Elvis Presley; [presented by] Kate Childs Graham"

Well, he did a version of Miracle of the Rosary.

P.S. If you're wondering if there's a hidden agenda, the answer is no, as seen at Preconference Seminar 1.05: 'Organizing for a Better Catholic Church'. It's presented by 'Bob Heineman and Church Justice Advocates from Across the Country'. The description includes,

"Now, with fresh leadership in the Vatican, the time is ripe for Call To Action to grow into the majority movement to Inspire Catholics and Transform the Church."

That's Transform with a capital T in the original, should anyone be tempted to draw parallels between CTA and elements of The Music Man. Which leads to another music-tinged topic on the Conference Schedule.

"Friday, November 7, 2014
[...]
"5:15pm – 6:30pm Ticketed Dinner & Evening Program: Vatican II Sing Along"

If you're looking for the internal contradiction in CTA, consider Transform the Church versus Vatican II Sing Along.

Laetificat: “Call To Action” apparently strategizing how to force Catholic churches to employ anti-Catholic activists

This is a real person

Do you remember Ruth Kolpack, the “Call to Action” dissent group member whom Bishop Morlino had removed from a parish staff position due to her support for “women’s ordination” and “gay marriage”? Infuriated, Call to Action “community organized” protests, and launched into media noisemaking. Recently I found two videos on YouTube that suggest Ruth Kolpack may be about to surface again in a film on the theme of “church workers’ rights”. The YouTube videos, which state they are “part of a work in progress about Ruth Kolpack’s dismissal”, misrepresent the reasons for Kolpack’s firing, in fact they present it as being about almost anything but the real reasons, which are explained well in the Diocese of Madison’s Frequently Asked Questions document on the case (to read about the reasons, scroll to p. 7 of the document, which also makes clear that someone who holds these beliefs is not in good standing in the Church). The maker of the video suggests she is the victim of a “conservative smear campaign”. Does Ruth Kolpack or the filmmaker contest the fact that she is a Call to Action activist dissent group member who stands for “gay marriage” and “women’s ordination” and opposes Catholic belief on those matters? In fact the YouTube videos do not mention that.

In the “Case for Ruth” video, I noticed just after the scene of the flier which faithful Catholics used to draw attention to Kolpack giving scandal, the film cuts to an interview with an unidentified man in the sanctuary of the formerly-Catholic Holy Wisdom Monastery., which dramatically left the Church. I can identify the place with great certainty since I have a photo with that organ in the background, that I took there myself when I went there to bring them testimonies from local lay Catholics on why Catholics shouldn’t support the place. And yes, Holy Wisdom is strongly connected with Call to Action (and “women’s ordination” and active homosexuality). The man interviewed in the Holy Wisdom sanctuary identifies himself as “a reporter and a concerned member of the diocese”.

continue at Laetificat Madison

AmP: Mil. gal refusing to "learn the damn prayers" says priests should focus on “Changing Water into Wine”

More from our friendly neighborhood heretic:

Maribeth Lynch, 51, a publisher from the Milwaukee suburb of Elm Grove, said she was “distraught” over the changes and would refuse to “learn the damn prayers.”

“It’s ridiculous. I’ve been a Catholic for 50 years, and why would they make such stupid changes? They’re word changes. They’re semantics,” she said. The priest “spent 40 minutes today on the changes instead of on the important stuff, like changing water into wine.”

continue at Catholic Vote

TPE: A patter of Bourgeois

Father Roy Bourgeois was in Milwaukee to speak at this year's Call to Action conference, Annysa Johnson reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

"This year, he received a second 'canonical warning' from the Maryknolls, saying he would be expelled from the order if he did not publicly recant. The move prompted more than 200 priests, including some in Wisconsin, to sign an open letter supporting Bourgeois' right to speak his conscience.

"Catholic teaching holds that only men are called to the priesthood. Pope John Paul II reinforced that position in a 1994 apostolic letter, saying the church has no authority to ordain women."

Which leaves the potential for parishioners to be asked to donate time and money for programs to spread and reinforce Catholic teaching, while a priest in the same parish says his conscience demands he publicly contradict Catholic teaching. And continue on the payroll.

P.S. Here's the conference schedule.

The Provincial Emails

Photo

Arizona abortion nun awarded at Milwaukee Call to Action conference

Okay I'm behind a bit with a funeral in the family last week.  A group in love with abortion, Call to Action, has their annual conference in Milwaukee every year.  I still have to confirm this, but I believe the infamous Puppet Mass was part of the ... celebration.  This year, they invited the nun who approved of a direct abortion for a woman as a cure for hypertension in an Arizona Catholic hospital. 

From Creative Minority Report:

Excommunicated Sister of Mercy Margaret McBride received the 2011 Call To Action Leadership Award at their annual conference precisely for her role in a decision at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix to abort an 11 week old unborn baby.

She gives a short speech accepting the award where she talks of mercy and forgiveness and bashes the Church in the same breath. Pretty darn disgusting.

FatherZ has more.

Call to Action 2010 conference

Thank you to Steve Kuhl for passing these dandies along.  He recommended cracking open a cold one and enjoying.  This years Call to Action conference was in Milwaukee Nov 5-7.  I know, I can't believe I missed it either.

Source

The only three people under 90 years old were asked to concelebrate.  Now if I had to sit through it, you better believe I'd not be drinking beer but whiskey, lots of whiskey.