Introducing the Left Catholic zine
In 2022, several CTA members are launching Left Catholic, a new zine that will be available as a print and online publication. Read the manifesto below and scroll down to learn how to submit content for the first issue.
Left Catholic Manifesto
We want to build a Catholic church for the people. To do so, we turn to the many traditions of the left and liberation movements. We hope to help make the Catholic left conscious of itself so that it can change the existing Catholic church structure, and so that Catholics can become better partners in the broader anti-capitalist struggle.
This publication:
Addresses material oppression, i.e. how money, labor, and land are used to oppress people
Following traditions of liberation theology, we see Jesus as a poor person living among an oppressed community under the Roman Empire’s occupation. Jesus’s community was exploited to enrich the Empire. The Catholic reform movement, especially in its nonprofit wing, is predominantly wealthy, highly-educated, urban, and white. In other words, it is composed of people who benefit from capitalism, and as such Catholic reform often lacks an underlying critique of capitalism. The goal of this publication is to open discussion around the role of Catholics and the Church in combating exploitation.
Strives to be accessible and inclusive
We welcome a range of perspectives and styles from people with a variety of experiences of church, work, education, and political organizing. We particularly encourage broadly accessible language and explanations.
Connects personal experience to systems of oppression
We want Catholics on the margins of the church, broadly defined, to write about their lives in the context of church and state oppression.
Specifically refers to and builds Catholic leftism
We are inspired by liberation movements both historical and contemporary, Catholic and non-Catholic. Our work directly draws on our reading of scripture, the Catholic Worker movement, Latin American liberation theology in the tradition of Ernesto Cardenal and the base communities, labor movements like the United Farm Workers organized by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, and the anti-war resistance of the Berrigan brothers and Plowshares movement. We look to the people-centered work of movements like the Black Panthers, Young Lords, and American Indian Movement. We welcome work informed by many traditions, including abolition, various anti-capitalist frameworks, Indigenous sovereignty, feminism and womanism, and queer liberation. While we want to build a people’s coalition across experience and identity, we also welcome writing from people who have not found liberation in such work.
Addresses the church and the world
We’re connected to Call To Action, a Catholic organization that works for justice in the Roman Catholic Church (women’s ordination and LGBTQ inclusion in parish life, for instance) and justice in the world (immigration reform, for instance). We’re inspired by CTA to reject the dichotomy between the “sacred” and the “secular.” In this publication, we look at both the “church” and “world” through a materialist lens.
Submit your work
The first issue of Left Catholic will contain a range of perspectives on the phrase “mapping the Catholic left today.” It will ground later issues of the zine, which will focus on more specific themes. The purpose of the first issue is to broadly introduce the scope of the publication. All are welcome to submit content. (Please read the Left Catholic Manifesto to understand the zine’s goals.)
Possible questions to address:
What is the Catholic left? Does it exist? What could or should it look like?
Is “left” an appropriate term? Why or why not?
How is it different from liberal Catholicism?
Explore the ideological tensions between leftist politics and church reform (i.e. why do we treat the Church differently than the state, and is that difference ideologically consistent?).
What are the problems facing the Catholic left today?
Length: 1,000 words maximum, shorter pieces encouraged. Visual art welcomed. Any style welcomed (essays, articles, short stories), with preference for broadly accessible prose that makes a critical analysis.
Details: Submit finished pieces via this form by Friday, January 21, 2022. Contributors will be financially compensated for accepted pieces: we will pay $30 for shorter pieces (500 words or less) and $50 for longer pieces. Left Catholic will be available in both print and digital formats; details about how to subscribe or access the publication will be available at a later date. Email abby@cta-usa.org with any pitches or questions. The first issue will be edited by Abby Rampone and Tess Gallagher Clancy.
