A Call To Action
ACTA, A Call to Action is 'a group of Catholics, some of whom are ordained'[1] in England and Wales founded in 2012. It aims to work for a wider implementation of the Second Vatican Council in the Church and improved dialogue between the hierarchy, clergy and laity. However there has been dispute in some quarters as to the agenda of the organization. It has contacts in all dioceses except Hallam [2] and the website shows that it has around 1,500 active members. It is not to be confused with the United States-based group, Call to Action.
Origins[edit]
In June 2012, a group of seven priests from various dioceses led by Derek Reeve from Portsmouth wrote a letter to The Tablet expressing their concerns about what they saw as the reining in of the spirit of renewal in the Church and the lack of dialogue.[3] The name ‘A Call to Action’ was adopted from The Tablet’s original header to the letter. While this elicited enthusiastic responses from some lay people, religious and priests, there was also opposition from some conservative Catholics. When in October 2012 a national meeting was held at Heythrop College, London, over 400 people came, and the meeting had to transfer into a larger nearby venue.[4] Subsequently ACTA groups started up in various dioceses, and it was soon to spread into them all. In June 2013, the National Core Group appointed a smaller Steering Group to devise a Constitution and hold a National Conference, the second after Heythrop, which met at Newman University in Birmingham in October 2013. Both conferences attracted a large attendance. The 2014 ACTA conference was at Liverpool Hope University in October 2014.
History[edit]
Between 2012 and 2013 membership grew so that the National Steering Group was able to coordinate elections in every diocese in England and Wales, choosing representatives to participate in a new National Delegate Council. The geography and the needs of every diocese differ, so each area ACTA group within a diocese chooses its own path to promote the aims, with the NDC and its Leadership Team acting as facilitator. Leading theologians such as Father Daniel 0' Leary and Professor Mary Grey have spoken at ACTA meetings around the country. Several diocesan bishops have either met ACTA groups officially already or have meetings planned. [5] Cardinal Nichols met two of the leading priests from the core group in 2012, and Archbishop Longley of Birmingham met with ACTA National Chair, Vice-Chair and Secretary in July 2014. In media debates before the 2014 Vatican Synod on the Family Jean Riordan,the National Chair of A Call to Action, was interviewed as a spokesperson for lay Catholic opinion on BBC radio's Channel 4 Today programme and Channel 5, and debated the issues with Monsignor Marcus Stock, at that time the Secretary to the Bishop's Conference.[6] Ms Riordan was also interviewed on "the booming reform group" in the Catholic Herald in July 2014 in a polite but skeptical article, and there has been much other discussion, both for and against, in the national Catholic press.[7]
The group describes as its motivation the Second Vatican Council's pastoral constitution, Gaudium et Spes, and the 1983 Code of Canon Law, which call on the whole body of the Church "to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church."[8] Some Catholic groups have broadly similar aims, but ACTA is not a protest group and as an organization does not focus on any single doctrinal, ethical or structural issue (although individual members-- including some in national and diocesan leadership positions - - advocate radical positions on some issues—see website forum index—and this has provoked much controversy on Catholic websites that take a different view). However ACTA summarizes its aim as the breaking down of perceived barriers in the Church and the promotion of dialogue at all levels.
References[edit]
- ↑ "Mission Statement". A Call to Action. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
- ↑ "Diocesan Co-ordinators". A Call to Action. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
- ↑ Tablet. 2 June 2012. p. 14. Search this book on
- ↑ "A Call to Action". Independent Catholic News. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
- ↑ Teahan, Madeleine (6 March 2014). "Bishop of Portsmouth holds meeting with A Call To Action". Catholic Herald.
- ↑ "Roman Catholic Church refuses survey request". BBC. 17 April 2014. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
- ↑ Greaves, Mark (10 July 2014). "Booming reform group is still an enigma". Catholic Herald.
- ↑ "Code of Canon Law: The obligations and rights of all the Christian faithful". The Holy See. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
External links[edit]
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