What if CTA issued a press release in the forest,...

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Jan 19, 2008

For months the leaders of Call to Action have been collecting signatures on a petition to the US bishops' conference, demanding action against Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska, who has refused to play along with the "audits" required by the Dallas Charter.

Pause here for a bit of background:

• The bishops' conference has no authority to discipline an individual bishop for non-compliance with the Charter audits.
• Insofar as the conference can do anything, it's already been done; the conference has published public pleas for Bishop Bruskewitz to get in line with the policy.
• Bishop Bruskewitz, who (rightly) regards the audits as pointless window-dressing, has refused.

So what's the point? Payback, possibly.

Back in 1996, Bishop Bruskewitz announced the excommunication of Call to Action members in his diocese.

Is this picture coming into focus now? Good.

Anyway CTA went on a nationwide drive to collect signatures, and after several months the group had 1,000 names on the petition. That's one-- count 'em, one-- thousand Catholics, or roughly 0.0015% of the Catholics living in the US. Are you impressed? If so, consider that loyal Catholics in Lincoln, Nebraska collected 1,500 signatures within 2 days on a petition to support their bishop.

With this petition in hand, CTA leaders marched down to the US bishops' meeting in Washington, asking to speak to the folks in charge. But CTA leaders report that "we were promised that an official would meet with us but nobody came." To be sure, there was some consolation:

Nevertheless, we have been grateful for the media coverage …

Ah, yes; the media. What would CTA do without the coverage?

Maybe we'll soon find out, because CTA leaders have now written to Chicago's Cardinal George, the new president of the US bishops' conference, reiterating their demand for action against Bishop Bruskewitz. Carbon copies went to at least 7 reporters. (And probably more. Uncle Di has obtained a copy, and as you might suspect, he isn't the first entry in the CTA Rolodex.) The letter asks Cardinal George for a response by February 15.

And if the cardinal doesn't respond? The threat is implicit: The CTA will go to the media. Again. On the theory that if you advertise a Grand Opening enough times for the Edsel showroom, sooner or later the customers are bound to show up.