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Bonavoglia Takes On the Men in Skirts If those who fight for justice are truly blessed, then Angela Bonavoglia must be nearing sainthood. In "Good Catholic Girls," she tells her own charged story and that of other faithful women who seek equality and reform from within the Catholic Church. (WOMENSENEWS)--One Easter Sunday in the late 1980s, Angela Bonavoglia, headed for Mass at St. Peter's Cathedral in Scranton, Pa.Years earlier, she'd written an article for New Directions for Women, a feminist newspaper, criticizing the Vatican's directive against ordaining women. Since then her frustration had been growing."I know I'm going to...

Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2005 14:15:00 -0700 From: Call To Action Subject: CTA apprehensive at news from Rome Call To Action To our Call To Action family: ==================================================================== The Spirit will be with us... as we move forward together. http://ctamembers.c.topica.com/maadqsZabgc2LbpdCdBeaeQyEw/ The Spirit will be with us as we move forward together We know you share our shock at the selection of Cardinal Ratzinger as Pope. As we were listening to the news coverage we thought, "Is this really the desire of our church?" Then we remembered the images of the cardinals sweeping into the Conclave in their matching robes and...

Pope had critics, too As Pope John Paul II is laid to rest this week, debates he fueled in churches throughout the Americas continue to swirl.In the United States and Latin America, John Paul left a church with declining membership, short on clergy, and attempting to heal from the priest sex-abuse scandal.For critics and lay reform groups, his biggest weakness was his refusal to engage in open dialogue.Polls have shown the majority of American Catholics out of step with church doctrine on issues such as contraception, divorce, homosexual unions, married clergy, and women priests, even as they praised the pope's...

The nine-year-old decision of Lincoln Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz to excommunicate members of Call to Action and other groups has withstood an appeal, the Diocese of Lincoln announced Friday. The diocese said that the Vatican rejected the appeal "some time ago." Call to Action Nebraska filed the appeal in protest of the blanket excommunication, but the group never heard back from Rome. The Rev. Mark Huber, a spokesman for the diocese, said the appeal was rejected because it challenged a church law - specifically, legislation from the 1996 Synod of the Diocese of Lincoln - that prohibited membership in the organizations....

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- An official with a Catholic reform group that has criticized the church's handling of priest sex-abuse cases says he was denied communion by Lincoln Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz and two other priests. John Krejci, a former priest and co-founder of the Nebraska chapter of Call to Action, said Bruskewitz denied him communion at Sacred Heart parish on Feb. 7, with "an unfriendly wave of his hand." "It was kind of like, "Go away!," Krejci said. "Then he spun around and went back to the alter." Bruskewitz said nothing, Krejci said. Call to Action has long been critical...

  Dear ____________,You watched John Kerry win the first presidential debate against George Bush with a commanding performance that showed Americans they can expect strong and principled leadership from him as President. But it was your efforts that kept the Republicans from spinning their way to victory. And after the vice presidential debate between John Edwards and Dick Cheney, when the Republican Party sought to mimic your efforts, you again kept the Republicans from claiming a victory that never existed.It's time to rally again. Tonight, John Kerry and George Bush will face off in the second presidential debate. The President...

With the aroma of incense hovering, the Rev. Eduardo Garcia lifts the communion wafer toward heaven, reciting, "Hoc est enim corpus meum." As the prayer echoes through St. Peter's Catholic Church in Volo, 15-year-old Beth Gammel says this is the moment she feels closest to God. She doesn't understand Latin, but the book she holds translates Garcia's prayer: "For this is my body." For Gammel and a growing number of young people, the once traditional Latin Mass provides a connection to the divine unmatched by any contemporary service. The Catholic rite dating from the 5th century had almost faded into...

We should be angry. Not just angry, but absolutely IRATE!!!

Just what is the Bernardin Legacy? Ask that simple question to any Catholic and the answers you receive will vary from one extreme to the other. One either loved him or despised him. But regardless of your personal opinion of the man there is one point, I believe, we can all agree on: He was a powerful and influential individual, both politically and spiritually. James Hitchcock wrote in an article published shortly after the Cardinal’s death that: “He [Bernardin] consistently used his influence to promote liberal causes, even attacks on Church teachings and traditions.” Hitchcock went on to say: “...he...

Some 4 1/2 months into his tenure, Bishop Thomas Olmsted has left no doubt that he is what the Vatican ordered when he was named to head the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix. A rapid series of recent diocesan actions underscores that Olmsted is a loyal and ardently faithful servant to Pope John Paul II, with whom the bishop once regularly worked during assignments with the Curia in the early 1980s. The pope tapped the 31-year priest last fall to leave his bishop's job in the Diocese of Wichita, Kan., to come to Arizona to rebuild a church rocked by...

Most found to favor discussion of mandate By TOM HEINENtheinen@journalsentinel.com Posted: Jan. 30, 2004 Lay volunteers are surveying diocesan and religious order priests in at least 52 of the country's 195 Roman Catholic dioceses to document how many think the requirement of mandatory celibacy for diocesan priests should be openly discussed by church leaders. The effort is being coordinated by two national reform groups that advocate the ordination of married men and of women - the Chicago-based Call to Action and the Cleveland-based FutureChurch. It is another in a series of ripples that were set in motion last year when...

Apologies if I'm late on this, but I haven't seen it discussed here. Last week, Raymond Arroyo interviewed Justice Ann Burke, the acting chair of the Bishop's Review Board on The World Over Live on EWTN. I knew nothing about this person when I began watching the interview, but as it went on, I started hearing buzz words and catch phrases that immediately gave me the willies. Not surprisingly, she was very supportive of the roles Bob Bennett and Leon Panetta were playing on the board. Raymond lobbed some typical softball questions at her, but he did manage to get...

Optional celibacy backed at Catholic conference By TOM HEINENtheinen@journalsentinel.com Last Updated: Nov. 7, 2003 About 2,800 reform-minded Catholics from around the nation gave a standing ovation Friday to a few of the 169 Milwaukee-area priests who took the rare step of supporting optional celibacy in letters this year to the president of the U.S. bishops conference.Celibacy's History A short history of celibacy in the Roman Catholic Church: 300: The Council of Elvira, a local synod in Spain, mandates celibacy for clergy under its jurisdiction.366: A growing body of papal teachings favors celibacy, but the observance of celibacy is not uniform.1073-1085:...

Special Announcement from the Board of Directors: The Board of Directors is looking to fill two (2) vacancies on the board. Any VOTING MEMBER IN GOOD STANDING, in accordance with the by-laws, may be elected to the Board. If you are a voting member in good standing who is interested in filling one of these vacancies, please contact the Executive Director or any Board Member. All members are requested to join us at our next meeting on September 10, 2003 in our virtual boardroom (#vcr at www.new-enterprises.net) to vote to fill the two vacancies on your Board of Directors....

The Quiet Corner by Fr. John A. Kiley Church is a servant of God, not of Modernist ideologues   When I was a curate at SS. John & Paul Parish in Coventry, it was decided to conduct a sex education course for the eighth grade students. A meeting was first scheduled for parents so they could be informed of the course's content. The meeting night arrived and not one parent showed up. Mystified by the lack of parental concern, a teacher later inquired from some parents regarding their absence. Their response was, "If Father Kiley's involved, everything will be OK....

For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretaryApril 26, 2003 Radio Address by the President to Nation      Audio THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. As America continues to fight and win the war on terror, our government is also focused on another national priority, growing our economy and creating jobs. America's economy has been through a lot. We experienced the shock of a terrorist attack; we have endured a recession; we had to deal with some major corporate scandals; we faced the uncertainty of war; and we have seen a slowdown in the global economy, which weakens demand for American goods and services....

Enhancing Democracy: the Key to Religious Reform by James Carroll Plenary address at 2002 CTA national conference in Milwaukee Carroll develops these themes more fully in his 2002 book, "Toward a New Catholic Church: The Promise of Reform." In the last thirteen months, we Americans have discovered with something approaching astonishment the wild diversity of religious and spiritual impulses that has come to mark not only the planet, but our own nation. "Today," as the great Catholic theologian Karl Rahner put it, "everyone is the next-door neighbor and spiritual neighbor of everyone else in the world." And the organizers...

  We Are One: A Pastoral to the Church in Rochester Nov 16, 1998 by Most Rev. Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Presiding Bishop, United Catholic Church   (Those unfamiliar with what has happened to Corpus Christi parish in Rochester, NY may first want to read the background, then return and read this Pastoral.  Go to Background on Corpus Christi)   I, Bob, by the grace of God a successor to the apostles; to the people of God of Corpus Christi parish in Rochester, New York. Greetings. May the joy and peace and love and grace and blessing of Almighty...

On EWTN radio this morning, I heard a program called "Living His Life Abundantly" with Johnnette Benkovic. Some of you may be familiar with this program. Johnnette's guest today was Mary Jo Anderson, a business woman and mother who turned reporter in response to attacks on the Church from within. What she had to say on today's show was very disturbing and contained a lot of information I had never heard before. Here's the blurb on the show from the LHLA web site: ---------------------------------------- How are dissident groups which claim to be "Catholic" using the current scandal to their advantage?...