Perspectives
Articles, essays, and reflections from progressive Catholic voices.
To contribute to Perspectives or submit an article, contact cta@cta-usa.org.
![Sacred Necessity](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/64cc18e78c7da36fe3e16af0/1691097544625-S6AQ6K66EOL6FWOBQKFL/Reminder+Notification+Motivational+Quote+Portrait+Instagram+Post+%282%29.jpg)
Sacred Necessity
Interim Executive Director Lauren Barbato reflects on the 2022 midterm elections, violence, and abortion. She writes that it’s time for Catholics to take sacred, necessary action.
![Calling Families, Allies, and LGBTQ+ Catholics to the Synodal Process](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/64cc18e78c7da36fe3e16af0/1691097544338-VLYQSLZEZGBMP1V0JNGY/Screen+Shot+2021-11-23+at+11.06.42+AM.png)
Calling Families, Allies, and LGBTQ+ Catholics to the Synodal Process
This video explains what synodality is, why it is important, and how LGBTQ+ Catholics, their families, and allies can effectively participate in the synodal process.
![The synod brings good news to the church](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/64cc18e78c7da36fe3e16af0/1691097544333-TZJZQ1SY2QIA9UUL5UPG/peopleofgod.jpeg)
The synod brings good news to the church
Call it naive, but I find in the synod a fresh way to proclaim good news about the Catholic Church: to everyone! To the weary, the tired, the despairing... that together we might be repairers of the breach.
![The Pope’s synod will not empower the laity](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/64cc18e78c7da36fe3e16af0/1691097544290-3UGLYY8FW8VR0FFN87VD/synod.jpeg)
The Pope’s synod will not empower the laity
Let’s appreciate what is meaningful about the synod process — and be clear-eyed about what kind of power it takes to build a new church.
![Sojourners: Don’t hide bishops’ complicity in white supremacy](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/64cc18e78c7da36fe3e16af0/1691097543321-XNZHPCM0ZP9848JKU8L2/folco-masi-e05DZ0UT52o-unsplash.jpg)
Sojourners: Don’t hide bishops’ complicity in white supremacy
Many of us at Call To Action object to the decision of Sojourners Magazine and its editor-in-chief Jim Wallis to retract its August 2020 article “The Catholic Church Has a Visible White-Power Faction.”
![Who is the Church, the universal institution?](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/64cc18e78c7da36fe3e16af0/1691097541431-0BJCO3GLUGY748R5GZTP/Blog+Dominic+CTA+2019+9+12.jpg)
Who is the Church, the universal institution?
I find that in practice, when we say “the Church,” we tend to mean the hierarchy’s institution. For instance: “The Church condemns women’s ordination…” We progressives are not much better than conservatives on this.
![Changing of the guard in Chicago](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/64cc18e78c7da36fe3e16af0/1691097541720-A3KMMBBGC5EWGGLSI268/dt-common-streams-streamserver.jpg)
Changing of the guard in Chicago
I am a progressive Catholic who writes and works within a movement that is leery of hierarchy. So I have to be suspicious of any talk about “grace of office,” and I am. But as a Catholic who is at home with messy paradox, and who participates in the historic Catholic imagination, I still maintain a stable of traditional sacred persons. The departing Chicago archbishop is one of them.