CTA in the Time of Coronavirus: An Appeal

In place of a Lenten reflection this week, we are sharing Dominic Surya's reflection from our latest vision appeal, written in the midst of Lent and the pandemic. You should receive a copy of this appeal in the mail soon.

“We in CTA must not only envision the future, but help each other survive now. And that will lead us to a future that endures.”
– CTA’s delfín bautista at our 2019 Sacramento conference

Every spring, we Call To Action leaders share our vision for the year ahead. Of course, the vision we’d drawn up has been clouded by the novel coronavirus. But also, I believe, it is being stripped to its essentials, to meet our deeper needs – fittingly, as it is now also Lent.

In recent years, Call To Action has been concentrating our efforts and resources. As our society fights for progress, our church hierarchy resists, stretching church reform and organizations like ours. So last year, we sold our office and took on a new, nation-wide staff working remotely, and invested in a second cohort of a dozen leaders in their 20s and 30s, most of them new to CTA.

Most recently, then, we announced a new step towards church reform: 2020’s national campaign, coordinating disparate strategies and groups to more effectively reform Catholic institutions. We planned a “convergence” in Minneapolis of chapter leaders, partners like the Women’s Ordination Conference, and the newly-selected 2020 Re/Generation cohort. Then for the rest of the year, we’d planned to coordinate locally-led education, lobbying, and occupation-like “direct actions” across the country, culminating this Advent.

Of course, like everyone these days, we are now redrawing our way forward, again, thanks to COVID-19. We cannot gather as chapters much less nationally any time soon; we can try to educate, but lobbying is harder, and direct action is hard to imagine.

Yet day by day, we are also realizing all that we can do, especially thanks to our focus in recent years. My colleagues and I already work from home, and our whole Re/Generation program is designed to build community among young leaders scattered across the country, especially through video meetings -- which our chapter leaders and Vision Council also use.

Indeed, days after my bishop canceled Masses – and graciously relieved me of my “obligation” to attend! – I was reminded of how, through you, I am still part of the Church.

Last week, I joined the monthly video meeting of fellow chapter leaders and was moved to hear from so many of your communities. Then as I was going to bed, fellow Re/Generators and I started texting about ways we might hold each other through this (rosary circle? trading post-cards?); it was the first time in my time stuck at home that I felt excited. And this Saturday, my Chicago chapter will hold our first video gathering, something our oldest member has long suggested would make our gatherings more accessible. And these are just the first, spontaneous examples of how CTA is responding.

Call To Action sustains me – now not only as a Catholic but as a person. It will sustain me in my home for these Lenten weeks, as they turn into months. And it will sustain me in laboring with you to be and to reform our church for years to come. For the world to come.

This is the first of four times this year we plan to write asking for your financial support. We rely on your response to each of these appeals to sustain our work – to strategize anew, reach Re/Generators, share progressive Catholic updates and perspectives, and more. In particular, as we grow from uncertainty into newer, stronger plans, help us count on you through an automatic monthly donation. We’re grateful for every contribution: cta-usa.org/donate