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GeorgiaBearwell, I am a liberal and I am Catholic... what's on your mind? :)

I just got back from the Call to Action conference in Milwaukee, and I'm on fire with what the Church could/should be! Here's a link to a National Catholic Reporter article about a keynote by Sr. Louise Akers and about the conference themes in general.
view link

It was thrilling to be among 1000+ people who think the way I do about Church, especially after the Vatican antics of welcoming anti-woman, anti-gay Anglicans to "come on in!" and ordering the "nunquisition."

As a lapsed Catholic, I'm interested in this. I gave up when I was being told that you burn in hell eternally if you miss Mass on Sunday but pedophile priests were just fine. If they want me back in the fold, they're going to have to come towards me.

Liberal, fallen away Catholic here who pulled away primarily because of the Church's attitudes towards women. Their subordinate role in the Church, prohibition of birth control, a few of the reasons.

Sister Akers cannot be praised enough for her courageous stand. We'll see if a big crack develops in the Vatican Wall.

This old back sliding Baptist, says, "Welcome".

Wow! I went to Catholic schools through my first degree and I think there is nothing more likely to push one out of the Church than a Catholic education . . . well, not really.

I was in college during the 60s, the era of the Brothers Berrigan.

There was so much liberal thinking in the Catholic CHurch then. I remember a priest giving a talk on Christ figures ( a big intellectual theme in the church then ) in the movies, including Alfie and Darling (you can laugh at how long ago that was!) and how the theme of the movie was more important than almost anything else.

Catholic Action supported MLK and the Civil Rights Movement.

Although I left the CHurch long ago, I do not recognize some of the people who tout Catholicism as the source of their values today.

Jesus wouldn't either, I suspect.

I bet you are fired up! Yeah!

For years, the "Post Vatican II" generation (mine) labored under the belief that the heirarchy would change. That happened to some degree but stalled in other important arenas (eg, women's ordination), and now we're moving backward. Who gets all the publicity? These bishops, behaving in the most incredibly un-Jesus-like manner, led by a man marching the Church firmly into the past.

Many in the reform progressive side of Catholicism in the country today are seeing this time in history as another Reformation. People are beginning to break away -- into separate congregations that the Vatican doesn't recognize, led by married former RC priests and women ordained in the Roman Catholic WomanPriest ritual; into small "house churches" where just a few people gather in someone's home to share faith; into many other forms of faith ritual. Some people still stay attached to their RC parishes, some don't. We all still call ourselves Catholics even though the Pope would say we're not. What does he know, anyhow!?!?

Last Night I learned a new word - a "Cachew." This is a Catholic who becomes a Jew. My mother was a Catholic. My wife was a Catholic. And I found out after the birth of my three Jewish boys, that I, myself, was baptized in the Catholic Church. (Nobody told me.) BTW I presented the evidence to my father-in-law, but he was unimpressed.

So I guess that I am a Cachew, too. Anyway, I have watched the progress (or lack of progress) of the Catholic Church since Vatican II and I have concluded that the Catholic Church moves at glacial speed.

They did get around to forgiving Galileo. It did, however, take 400 years. So what is the rush to have priests marry and women become priests? It will happen in the next 400 years, I am sure! view link Galeo

Welcome to the mongrel group Bernie. I'm a Catheran~mother Lutheran-father Catholic. I was raised Catholic, though.

Georgia and Bernie -- Thanks for the information on the underground church and on Catholics who become Jews. I had no idea that there was an apparently thriving underground. My question is will this underground be seen in the future as a reform movement or as a heresy, like the Cathars?

I saw Michael Moore's film, Capitalism: A Love Story, last night. Catholic clerics were shown supporting strikers and giving counsel to people who have been foreclosed upon. It was recently revealed that Moore is a practicing Catholic and he is the sort of Catholic I knew as a high school and college student that seemed to have disappeared.

I would be surprised if I returned to the church but we all do things that we would never permit. Nevertheless, the presence of those priests in the film, especially those who spoke directly with Moore about capitalism, was a relief! I thought the entire church had gone off the deep end!

BTW, all the women I knew at Marygrove College ignored the church's teaching on birth control although some did receive notes from their doctors to give to their confessors as to why they needed to be on The Pill.