Progressives push reform with discussions,
Ramerman liturgy
As 250,000 young people took part in the official World Youth Day,
a much smaller group of progressives staged a parallel event at an Anglican
parish a few blocks away.
The program, sponsored by a group called Challenge the
Church, included sessions on democracy and dissent, sexuality and the
church, reproductive rights and global justice.
One highlight was a July 23 liturgy celebrated by Mary Ramerman,
recently declared a priest by the breakaway community of Corpus Christi in
Rochester, N.Y. Organizers said a crowd of more than 400 took part.
The reformers are also distributing free condoms to World Youth
Day delegates, in part to highlight differences with church teaching on birth
control. They expect to hand out 10,000 by weeks end.
The idea is to push the case for church reform.
The demand for reforms since the Second Vatican Council
(1962-1965) cannot be stopped despite all at-tempts of the Roman curia and
conservative groups within the church, said Tobias Raschke, a
spokesperson for the youth branch of the European We Are Church
movement.
Basilian Fr. Thomas Rosica, chief organizer for World Youth Day,
said church officials are very much aware of the parallel
activities.
They are entitled to have their event, this is a society
that is very tolerant, Rosica said. But he rejected charges that World
Youth Day is closed to dialogue, or insufficiently attentive to social justice.
Some of the vision these folks have is not
well-informed, he said.
Rosica argued that the difference between the official event and
its parallel counterpart is joy.
There is a lot of joy in this World Youth Day, he
said.
-- John L. Allen Jr.
National Catholic Reporter, August 2,
2002
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