UNITED KINGDOM
Independent Catholic News
By: Ellen Teague
Posted: Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Around 400 people attended yesterday’s second meeting of the movement ‘A Call to Action’, which is fostering dialogue about the future direction of the Church and Church renewal in Britain. The organisers were “overwhelmed” by the attendance, which forced the gathering out of Heythrop College in Kensington and into nearby St Mary Abbots Church. Nearly every diocese of England and Wales was represented and priests, religious and laity were all there in good numbers.
The initiative started off in June when seven priests – Ian Byrnes, John Lally, Patrick McLaughlin, Frank Nally, Derek Reeve, Joe Ryan and Paul Sanders – wrote to The Tablet, calling for a more active encouragement of lay people in the work of the Church, and expressing concern that the call for collegiality made by Vatican II has not been realised. The first open meeting they organised on 18 July attracted 70 Catholic priests and deacons who shared concerns and discussed the future of the Church. In advance of the second meeting, some organisers had met with Archbishop Vincent Nichols at what was described as a “very good meeting”. Fr Joe Ryan of Westminster Diocese reported that “he agreed that something needs to be done” and “will observe our movement”.
Yesterday, four speakers addressed themes in the Vatican II document, ‘Gaudium et Spes’, and its legacy for us today. Retired headteacher Chris McDonnell regretted that today’s Church “tends to look backwards rather than forwards”. There is significant distance between the laity and the hierarchy, he said, and lack of appreciation of how the imposition of the new liturgy has disappointed laity. He suggested that young people see hypocrisy in the Church, where, for example, former Anglicans can be married priests but not cradle Catholics. He asked: “How do we make our Church the Church of our children?”
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