Obama Advisor is Well Known Dissenting Catholic

Inside Catholic ^ | December 7, 2007 | Deal Hudson

[NYer]

 

Marshall Ganz, a Harvard sociologist, was a major force behind organizing Voice of the Faithful (VOTF), a dissenting Catholic organization devoted to "structural" change in the Church. VOTF, you may recall, used the occasion of the priest sex scandals to call for changes in Catholic doctrine such as the addition of a married priesthood and popularly-elected bishops.

 

Ganz is a nationally known expert in political organizing. In 2004 he was an adviser to Howard Dean -- Ganz now advises Democratic presidential candidate, Barak Obama.

 

Ganz's intent in helping to found VOTF is made clear from a letter published on the VOTF web site by his former graduate assistant, Aimee Caravich. Caravich was hired by VOTF to develop a training program for regional coordinators and affiliate leaders.

 

Caravich, in a letter to VOTF members, wrote:

 

I sincerely believe . . . VOTF can rise to its feet and claim a piece of the power that the Catholic hierarchy currently holds. I am here to get that ball rolling. . . . After all, as the VOTF opening prayer states, 'We are the Church.'

 

Ganz recruited her into VOTF after they spent two years together teaching "People, Power, and Change" at the Kennedy School of Government.

 

Now the same man who helped create an organization to change the hierarchical structure of the Catholic Church is a chief adviser to Barak Obama. Last summer, for example, Ganz helped to design and implement "Camp Obama" in five cities across the country. Camp Obama was a three-day training session for volunteers who were tasked with creating a precinct level political organization from the grassroots up.

 

The Camp Obama web site features a video where Ganz explains, "How we can develop our own stories of self so we can relate with voters on a deeper emotional level than just to transfer information."

 

Ganz certainly has the credentials for this line of work. He was a civil rights and labor organizer with figures like Cesar Chavez. Additionally, he also worked for 16 years with the United Farm Workers, eventually becoming their National Organizing Director. Ganz tells the story of his work with UFW in his book, Why David Sometimes Wins.

 

Perhaps Ganz sees Obama as the David who can topple the goliath who is Hillary Clinton. Obviously he views successful grassroots organization as a key to an Obama victory over the well-financed Clinton political machine.

 

But the presence of Ganz in the Obama campaign suggests the candidate himself applauds the kind of change in the Catholic Church Ganz and his associates were trying to effect through VOTF.

 

So what is Obama's attitude toward Catholics?

 

In his speech last summer to the Call to Renewal Conference he explained, "The majority of Catholics practice birth control because they, like all Americans, 'intuitively' recognize religious teachings that are 'more culturally specific' and may be modified to accommodate modern life."

 

Marshall Ganz may or may not have had a hand in writing that speech, but it sounds like it came right out of the VOTF handbook for Catholic dissent. Obama applauds Catholics in their dissent against Humanae Vitae as intuitive and distinctively American.

 

Obama has Catholic support, including a priest from Chicago, Fr. Michael Pfleger who said,"I think Barak Obama is in a class of his own." Not really, Father. Just like presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Rudy Giuliani, Obama is pro-abortion and pro-gay marriage.

 

Now that Clinton is sliding downward in the polls, and the Obama campaign is gaining ground, we may be hearing more of Obama's opinions on Catholic teaching.

 

[NYer]

---

Deal W. Hudson is the director of InsideCatholic.com and the Morley Institute for Church & Culture.

[NYer]

And from Catholic News Agency

---

Presidential candidate Barack Obama and advisor Marshall Ganz

Washington DC, Dec 10, 2007 / 11:24 am (CNA).- A Harvard sociologist who was a major force in organizing the dissenting Catholic group Voice of the Faithful is now advising the presidential campaign of Democratic candidate Barack Obama.

Marshall Ganz helped start Voice of the Faithful, an organization devoted to "structural change” in the Church.  It has called for changes in Catholic doctrine and practice, such as the addition of a married priesthood and the popular election of bishops.

Ganz recruited one of his former graduate students, Aimee Caravich, into Voice of the Faithful to develop a training program for regional coordinators and affiliate leaders.  In a letter to the organization's members, she wrote, "VOTF can rise to its feet and claim a piece of the power that the Catholic hierarchy currently holds. I am here to get that ball rolling."

Marshall Ganz is now a chief advisor to Obama, having designed and implemented "Camp Obama" training sessions in five states.  The three-day sessions were for volunteers whose job is to create precinct-level grassroots political support.

In a Camp Obama website video, Ganz explains, "How we can develop our own stories of self so we can relate with voters on a deeper emotional level than just to transfer information."

Ganz, a former civil rights and labor organizer with figures like Cesar Chavez, also worked with the United Farm Workers.

Deal Hudson of InsideCatholic.com thinks Ganz's dissenting influence on Obama's campaign might be evident in the presidential candidate's address to the Call For Renewal Conference.  In that speech, Obama suggested that Catholic teaching against birth control was a "more culturally specific" doctrine that "may be modified to accommodate modern life."

"Now that Clinton is sliding downward in the polls, and the Obama campaign is gaining ground, we may be hearing more of Obama's opinions on Catholic teaching," Hudson surmised.

[kellynla]

“dissenting” Catholic?

what ever happened to “fallen away” Catholic
or what old schoolers used to call ‘em “ex-Catholics”...in any case, this clown is about as "Catholic" as my cat! LOL

[franky1]

“Ganz is a nationally known expert in political organizing. In 2004 he was an adviser to Howard Dean — Ganz now advises Democratic presidential candidate, Barak Obama.”

Evidently Ganz has not been on winning teams. So much for “experts”

[incredulous joe]

I think phony ex-Catholic sounds even better.

As for Voice of the Faithful, well that's false advertising; it should be Voice of Subversion.

By the way, my goat is more Catholic than this cat.

Er,...not your cat,...this Ganz cat, I mean.

[Reo]

"Ganz is a nationally known expert in political organizing. In 2004 he was an adviser to Howard Dean

Gosh, he sounds almost as expert as Bob "0 for 8" Schrumm.

[livius]

Why am I not surprised?

[bboop]

He’s not just an ex-Catholic, tho. He is an ANTi-Catholic. If he were just not Catholic, he would not seek to destroy (I mean, to quote him, ‘to bring about structural change.’) But as he has founded VOTF, he is now fighting to destroy something he once loved.

vile.

[marshmallow]

In a Camp Obama website video, Ganz explains "How we can develop our own stories of self so we can relate with voters on a deeper emotional level than just to transfer information."

Spot the tired '60s liberal psycho-babble buzzwords.

"Stories of self"......"relate"......"deeper emotional level".

Sounds like the guy is looking for a spiritual experience. Unfortunately, he's been running in the wrong direction for 40 years.

[ArrogantBustard]

"How we can develop our own stories of self so we can relate with voters on a deeper emotional level than just to transfer information."

What the ... ???

I refuse to believe that any man said that. That's 100% pure new age feminist psychodrivel.

[AliVeritas]

Thanks to Deal... I really miss him. I will go to Chicago in hopes of seeing this guy personally. Trust me.

This requires Mass, prayer and fasting. I wonder how the black nationalists feel about Ganz?

[RobbyS]

Lots of ex-priests and liberal laymen dove into the pool of psychology, bumped their heads on the bottom, and came up babbling like this. If they are going to abandon their faith and delve into psychology, I wish they would read a little William James, who had some real insignt into religious faith.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I've got news for you: he's not a Catholic at all. He's the son of a rabbi from Bakersfield, CA and an agnostic Jew. Or Jewish agnostic. (I need a better way to say this, so as not to insult the Jews.)

There's an enlightening article on him here.

He worked for the United Farm Workers for a long time, but now he's just virulently anti-Catholic Church in a weirdly "We Are The Church" kind of way, when he's no such thing.

He's like a person who refuses to marry, and then demands the right to divorce. Or a person who refuses to get pregnant, and then demands the right to abort.

Weird.

Oh, and BTW, he's not the Synagogue, either.

[Mrs. Don-o]

What I mean to sayis, he's a never-been-Catholic who demands the right to be a fallen-away Catholic!

Fallen-away Catholic has gotto be the second-largest religious group in America. Second to Catholic.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I see he's messing with the Episcopalians, too. Scro halfway down this link to "Faith-Based projects," (or, in lay terms, "wrecking churches.")

[Mrs. Don-o]

I mean, “scroll.” Sheesh/

[livius]

He's like a person who refuses to marry, and then demands the right to divorce. Or a person who refuses to get pregnant, and then demands the right to abort.>

LOL! Curiouser and curiouser.

[MIchaelTArchangel]

Are there any real Catholics left in Massghanistan?

[Salvation]

Our Lady's Warriors>Dissent>Dissenting authors and speakers/dissenting organizations

Voice of the Faithful (VOTF)

From their mission statement, they are attempting to "3. Shape structural change within Church." This is intended to make a "democratic" Church which clearly violates the hierarchical structure which has always existed and is reemphasized in Vatican II Lumen Gentium. The chairman James Muller states in a National Catholic Reporter article on April 26, 2002, ìWe have donation without representation, and we have to change that.î Also on a CNN interview dated April 29, 2002, the chairman desires cafeteria Catholicism: "... our goal is to provide a democracy for the laity, so that the laity can decide what they want and then counterbalance the absolute power, which we have now of the hierarchy." See more details below.

[incredulous joe]

Denis Praeger uses Secular Jew. I don’t think “agnostic Jew” would be offensive.

You don’t mean to offend, so don’t sweat it.