c. 1996 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Warning that the Roman Catholic Church in the United States”has entered a time of peril”because of acrimonious differences between liberals and conservatives, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago called Monday (Aug. 12) on members of the nation’s largest religious body to seek common ground.”I have been troubled that an increasing polarization within the church and, at times, a mean-spiritedness, have hindered the kind of dialogue that helps us address our missions and concerns,”Bernardin said.”As a result, the unity of the church is threatened, the great gift of the Second Vatican Council is in danger of being seriously undermined, the faithful members of the church are weary, and our witness to government, society and culture is compromised,”he said.

Bernardin, the senior active cardinal in the U.S. hierarchy, a consummate man-of-the-middle, and arguably the American church’s most influential prelate, made his call at a news conference in Chicago, where he unveiled the Catholic Common Ground Project and a statement,”Called to Be Catholic.” Joining Bernardin in his call for common ground were several prominent members of the American hierarchy: Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles; Archbishop Oscar Lipscomb of Mobile, Ala.; Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk of Cincinnati; Archbishop Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee; Retired Bishop James Malone of Youngstown, Ohio; Bishop Ricardo Ramirez of Las Cruces, N.M.; and Bishop Edward O’Donnell of Lafayette, La.

The new project, aims to overcome what the statement calls a”discordant and disheartened atmosphere”that presently affects the church on a host of issues: the role of women in the church; sexual matters; the relationship of the U.S. church to the Vatican; and the way Catholic laity and members of the hierarchy weigh in on political issues.”For three decades the church has been divided by different responses to the Second Vatican Council and to the tumultuous years that followed,”the statement said. Since then, the”party lines have hardened”between factions.

Bernardin’s statement painted a depressing portrait of Catholic life in the United States _ a demoralized clergy, decaying institutional life, drooping attendance at Mass, and declining financial contributions.”A mood of suspicion and acrimony hangs over many of those active in the church’s life; at moments it even seems to have infiltrated the ranks of the bishops,”the statement said.

Bernardin said the first item on the agenda for the Common Ground Project is a 1997 conference on the relationship between the Catholic Church and American culture.

The Common Ground Project was developed by the New York City-based National Pastoral Life Center, headed by the Rev. Philip J. Murnion.

The project comes at a time when an array of liberal organizations under the umbrella name”We Are Church”is seeking serious reform. The group launched a campaign earlier this year to gather 1 million signatures demanding the ordination of women, the popular election of bishops and the right of priests to marry.

Bernardin said the project will seek to bring together”persons of divergent perspectives in search of a `Catholic common ground’ using the teaching of the Second Vatican Council as its basis.” But he also said the group will work”within the boundaries of authentic church teaching”_ a caveat that could hinder efforts to overcome polarization on some of the most divisive issues in the church, such as the ordination of women, abortion rights and the acceptance of homosexuals in church and society.

The Vatican, for example, has ruled out any discussion of women’s ordination; neither Bernardin nor the”Called to Be Catholic”statement mention the issue. The statement speaks only in general terms of”the changing role of women.” Among the signers of the statement, which has been in the works for more than three years, are prominent feminist theologians and activists, such as Sister Elizabeth Johnson of Fordham University and Sister Doris Gottemoeller, president of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas.

They do not, however, include any prominent Catholic supporters of legal abortion or gay rights, nor members of such politically active conservative groups as the Catholic Alliance, an arm of Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition. Also absent are members of the conservative Catholic Campaign for America, which includes Cardinal John J. O’Connor of New York as its ecclesiastical adviser, or the National Committee of Catholic Laymen, an anti-abortion activist group.

The initiative drew mixed reviews from groups left out of the process.

Andrea Johnson, national coordinator of the Women’s Ordination Conference, said that the Bernardin initiative begins the sort of dialogue her group has been seeking to have with the hierarchy for the past 20 years.”This initiative is a good start toward full inclusion of women in the church’s ministries,”she said.”We hope that women’s ordination will be examined with `fresh eyes, open minds and changed hearts,'”she said, quoting from the statement.

Sister Maureen Fiedler, national coordinator of the”We Are Church”referendum said the Bernardin initiative”sounds promising, but raises questions. Real dialogue … must be frank and forthright,”Fiedler said.

Fiedler said she was disappointed the initiative did not mention specific issues such as the popular election of priests and bishops, divorce and remarriage, and a married clergy, and that its use of terms like”authentic unity”and”acceptable diversity”could be used to exclude groups from the intended dialogue.

Sister Donna Quinn, a spokeswoman for the liberal activist group, Chicago Catholic Women, said the new project is”a call to divert the real issues and the media away from the discrimination and exclusion (of women) by the church’s hierarchy and the Vatican.” Frances Kissling, president of Catholics for a Free Choice, the Washington, D.C.-based group that supports abortion rights, is not part of the Common Ground Project; church leaders refuse to recognize the group as authentically Catholic. Nevertheless, Kissling called the new initiative’s effort to reduce polarization laudable.”However, problems within the church cannot be resolved without participation of all players,”said Kissling.”And since the bishops’ hands are tied by Vatican insistence that certain subjects are not to be discussed, we are left wondering about this initiative.” But even though the conservative Catholic Campaign for America, was left out of the formative stages of the project, its leaders welcomed the opportunity to join the discussion. A public policy activist group which counts among its leaders former drug czar William J. Bennett; prominent abortion foe Mary Cunningham Agee; and Domino’s Pizza founder Thomas Monaghan, the Catholic Campaign for America seeks to bring Catholic values to bear on public life.”It is a good faith effort by the cardinal to bring some unity to our church,”said Michael Ferguson, executive director of the Washington-based group.”Our aims are very similar.” Ferguson said his group would”do anything we can do to further this effort. We think it is important and positive.” (STORY CAN END HERE. OPTIONAL MATERIAL FOLLOWS)

Signatories to the”Called to be Catholic”statement include a number of prominent clergy and members of the laity: Former Pennsylvania Gov. Robert P. Casey, a vocal abortion foe; the Rev. Brian Daley, a Notre Dame University theologian; the Rev. Virgilio Elizondo of San Antonio; Mary Ann Glendon, the Harvard University law professor who headed the Vatican delegation to the 1995 U.N. Conference on Women in Beijing; Sr. Doris Gottemoeller, president of Sisters of Mercy of the Americas; the Rev. Bryan Hehir of Harvard University’s Center for International Affairs; Sr. Elizabeth Johnson, a Fordham University theologian; conservative theologian Michael Novak; Margaret O’Brien Steinfels, editor of Commonweal Magazine; and John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO.

MJP END ANDERSON