2020 Year-end Report and Appeal
CTA members and Church friends,
“Why do you contribute to this community and work? Will you?” It is my passion and job to ask this around CTA.
As I was joining the CTA staff a year ago, a Legacy Circle member –someone who’d shared his intention to include CTA in his estate – asked me in turn: Amidst all CTA’s current change, what fundamental work are we continuing? It’s a powerful question, echoing Vatican II questions of what sources the Church drew from as it updated itself in the modern world. And it’s a pressing question, as CTA has in the last five years turned over its governance model, staff, and programming for age diversity and anti-racism — and sharply consolidated financially in the process. Forty-four years after bishops convened the first CTA conference in 1976, what has endured and indeed flourished?
The following reports on CTA now through this lens. It works from an interview of CTA’s co-founders Dan and Sheila Daley by my summer intern Emma Calkins and long-time Vision Council member Amy Sheber Howard, and it is by my colleague and Re/Generation (CTA young-adult) peer Abby Rampone. Its cover is by our colleague/peer Revalon Wesson, quoting adrienne maree brown’s “a complex movement” in Emergent Strategy.
And the report’s activity is of course, by you — by all of us bringing what we have to the table, and transforming it together, week after week, year after year. As we close the books on this year and discern what we can do next year, please once more consider what you can offer, especially financially. Visit cta-usa.org/donate or mail a check to 1301 2nd Ave S A306, Minneapolis, MN 55403. For decades, CTA has been its members not only in its identity but in its resources. Thanks for helping us continue this great legacy.
Dominic Surya
Development Director, Vision Council member, ’19 Re/Generator
Chicago, Illinois
Church Justice
“We were the only group that was trying to continue the spirit of Detroit, which was very multi-issued.” – Dan Daley
The 1976 Call To Action conference in Detroit centered on eight general topics: church, family, neighborhood, work, race and ethnicity, personhood, nationhood, and humankind. The conference’s resolutions reflect this multi-issue approach, articulating specific steps that the church should take to address racism, sexism, homophobia, and more.
CTA continues to draw upon its roots in a broad call for reform. Our expansive focus strengthens us, reminding us that we cannot sustainably create justice for some without dismantling interwoven, compounding systems of oppression.
In 2020, Call To Action’s Vision Council issued two statements: “Call To Action calls on white Catholics: dismantle white supremacy in the Church and in the world” and “Trans lives are sacred: A CTA statement of solidarity with trans communities.” We re-affirmed our commitment to racial justice and LGBTQ+ inclusion even as we supported projects that pull our organization in new, life-giving directions, like two projects that emerged from the National Campaign to address the Catholic Church’s complicity in colonization and violence against indigenous peoples.
CTA Chicago gathers for liturgy one year ago.
“We really were a lubricant to building the cross-section of progressive Catholics addressing justice in the church and justice in society.” – Dan
When the Daleys brought Call To Action to Chicago, they brought the spirit of Detroit with them. The new organization’s board included representatives from many other Catholic organizations, each carrying their own perspectives and concerns. In opposition to Chicago’s authoritarian Cardinal Cody, CTA became a coalition of activists, united by a common belief in the spirit of Detroit.
In 2020, CTA still functions as a coalition of activists. Our commitment to collaboration with other organizations strengthens a broader movement for church reform. Activists with Roman Catholic Womenpriests, DignityUSA, and independent Eucharistic communities have served as mentors to young adults in our Re/Generation program. Staff and board members from Women’s Ordination Conference, FutureChurch, and NETWORK have supported the 2020 National Campaign as working group leaders.
On our emerging organization and approach: “The working groups and the four strategies allow you to be a very diverse-issued organization.” – Sheila Daley
Our 2020 National Campaign is a project to strengthen the church reform movement as a whole. Our four strategy working groups are the bedrock of the Campaign. By organizing people around strategies for church reform – education, lobbying, direct action, and alternatives – we encourage people to coordinate their efforts across issues and geographies – and to learn from each other. Activists for different causes connect in each working group, sharing their expertise and collaborating on projects for justice.
Anti-Racism
“We were involved in the civil rights movement in the late 60s and early 70s, before the Detroit conference in ‘76.” – Dan
“And for CTA, it’s just a no-brainer. We should be there. We must live into our anti-racist commitments.” – Sheila
Like many of their generation, the Daleys were politically activated by the civil rights movement. Racial justice has always been a tenet of CTA, one of the eight issues featured at the 1976 conference. Meanwhile CTA has been a predominantly white organization. We continue to strive to live into our anti-racist commitments. Painful and poor though these efforts often feel, anti-racism remains at the heart of CTA.
After national uprisings following the murder of George Floyd in June 2020, CTA’s Anti-Racism Team reinvigorated racial-identity caucuses. The white caucus is a space for white CTA members to contend with their racial biases and hold each other accountable to continued work for justice. The people-of-color caucus is a space for CTA members of color to support each other and build on their experiences in predominantly white spaces.
Within the National Campaign, CTA has worked with Natalie Lall, a young adult from Kenosha, WI working to bring anti-racism training to Catholic churches in her hometown. We have also launched an ambitious lobbying project to “power-map” the most powerful bishops in the USCCB on race, identifying their statements and actions to more strategically pressure the Catholic hierarchy to center racial justice.
National Gatherings and Local Chapters
“So many people came once a year to our liturgies, which were egalitarian and beautiful. Beautiful and traditionally done, yet also relating to people today and all their flavor. At the end of every conference we had a liturgy, and that was so important to people.” – Dan
Church alternatives – from liturgies to chapters – have always been at the heart of CTA. People flocked to annual conferences to worship together with inclusive language and communal leadership, praying to a God of justice. Drawing on that energy, many chapters became communities that worshipped and worked together all year long.
Though we could not gather in person in 2020, we continued to meet virtually. We kicked off the National Campaign with a virtual Convergence in June, an online gathering where over a hundred people from our chapters and network prayed and learned about CTA’s plans for the coming months. Advent projects for our National Campaign speak to a hunger to gather in old and new ways. A group of three Re/Generators in Tacoma, WA is holding a series of LGBTQ-led liturgies, one for each Sunday of Advent. With the leadership of Dora Saavedra and Fred Dabrowski, the alternatives working group has designed a Liturgy of Lament for people mourning the loss of an unwelcoming parish or Catholic community.
Faithful Call To Action chapters bring the spirit of conference to life in local communities. The Washtenaw County, MI chapter continues to worship together. In Portland, OR, CTA members are providing mutual aid to homeless folks. We are finding ways to be together in prayer and action.
Young Adults
“People who felt alienated found a home with us.” – Sheila
2020 was the third year of Re/Generation, our mentoring and leadership program for people in their 20s and 30s. Re/Generators receive a stipend, elder mentorship, and support for activism in their local context. This year we welcomed twenty-one young adults into the CTA family. Small teams from Tacoma, Chicago, the Bay Area, and New York City collaborated on projects, alongside individuals from rural Montana to the Rio Grande Valley.
CTA has always been a community for people who have been alienated or pushed out of the Catholic Church, but increasingly, it is also a home for young adults who have never felt like they belonged. It is a home for people who have never had a spiritual home.
Intergenerational projects like People’s History of Vatican II, a series of interviews with CTA members about their memories of the Council, help build understanding among people whose experiences of the church may feel decades apart. CTA is an umbrella, a place for people with all manner of relationships to our tradition. This is a source of strength — fertile soil for community and change-making.
Will you donate to support our young adults, the future of our church and world?
“You’re doing so many things that we did. You’re doing it in different ways now; we’ve got the coronavirus to deal with, you’ve got to respond to the realities of your time. And sometimes there’s great creativity. I couldn’t hope for a better continuation of Call To Action.” – Sheila
Finances and Fundraising
The year is not over yet, but thanks to support like yours, CTA is on track to end 2020 with expenses covered by ordinary revenue (donations, sponsorships, and grants) — both almost $250,000. This is the first year since 2014 that we have ended the year with more assets than we started, not least last year, when we sadly sold our (by then empty) Chicago office and said good-bye to our longest-serving staff.
Plus this year, CTA received an extraordinary bequest of about $400,000 (it is not yet fully settled), from diocesan and parish priest Mike Tauke of Iowa. We were also blessed with a bequest from Valia DiCesare. Thus over this year we in fact will more than double our net assets, letting us commit to more bold, long-term programming – look out for news of this in our 2021 mailings!
You can give at cta-usa.org/donate and you can check there for past years’ finances and (next year) an update about this year’s.
We close by thanking all who give their time, talent, and treasure to CTA — especially those who intend to give through their estates, to support us after they pass on. Open to joining the Legacy Circle? Email dominic@cta-usa.org or call 773.988.2352.
Eileen and Bob Heineman
Celine Larson
Fr. Jim Mathews
Ellen and John McNally
Patricia McSweeney
John Nangle
Mary Pautz
Paul Scarbrough
Kathleen Schatzberg
Dominic Surya
Linda & Bernie White
Shirley Adler
Peter Anderson
Tamar Byczek & Tom Yager
Fr. Andre Bernard
Gary Chicoine
Blanche Crandall
Sheila & Dan Daley
Bill Diederich
Rita Erickson
Jaimy George & Jim Fitzgerald
Mary Hawk
Patty Hawk
