Call to Action co-presidents outline successes

By DENNIS CODAY
Milwaukee, Wis.

The first plenary session of the 2007 Call to Action convention began Friday night with a rousing, rocking liturgy led by the All Saints Gospel Choir from Milwaukee. It was the choir’s eighth appearance at the Call to Action convention and very well received.

The ballroom of the Midwest Airlines Convention Center was filled with more than 2,000 delegates and visitors. Delegates were seated according to state chapter.

CTA board co-presidents Patty Hawk and Paul Scarbrough reported on achievements of the organization over the last year.

Hawk read from resolutions that the U.S. bishops approved at the 1976 Call to Action conference. One was titled “The church’s response to racism and discrimination,” which stated: “The church in the United States will participate actively in efforts to shape public policy aimed at ending racism.”

“Progress on this issue has been excruciatingly slow and in some cases, we know, church policies have served to perpetuate systemic racism,” Scarbrough told the delegates.

“This is our time of challenge,” he said. He then talked about a five-year effort to put ending racism prominently on the Call to Action agenda and to make Call to Action a leading Catholic voice on anti-racism.

“This weekend is a tangible sign of the efforts of Call to Action’s anti-racism team,” Scarbrough said.

Hawk told delegates that “this weekend will be another step on a healing, loving, energizing, thought-provoking, transformational journey.”

Further reports on the CTA convention will give more details about the organization’s anti-racism efforts.

Other achievements Hawks and Scarbrough outlined were efforts from the organization’s JustChurch Project, a one-year-old project with the goal of “aligning our efforts for church reform with the best of nonviolent action strategies and new activist technology.”

They mentioned:

• A campaign of support as St. Augustine Parish in New Orleans struggles to remain open.

• A solidarity campaign with the Rio Grande Valley, Texas, CTA chapter, who earlier this year had an action on the Rio Grande River to call attention to the negative social and environmental consequences of the planned wall on the U.S. southern border.

• Call to Action endorsed and encouraged members to sign a petition, Catholics For an End to the War in Iraq, which was begun by Pax Christi USA, Catholics United for the Common Good, and Network. At last count the petition had 11,000 signatures to present to Congress.

• Pressure from Call to Action Nebraska compelled Lincoln Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz to outline publicly what actions he is taking to protect young people in the Lincoln diocese against sexual abuse. Bruskewitz has refused to join the programs the U.S. bishops adopted in 2002 to ensure the protection of children and young people.

• Call to Action is petitioning the U.S. bishops’ conference to censure Bruskewitz for not abiding by the national standards for the protection of children and young people.