Dissent and Confusion: Meet the American Catholic Council

Catholic Online will continue to keep readers abreast about this movement, exposing both the people behind it and their numerous errors

Eight members of ACC's national planning committee were recently emailed and asked to demonstrate their proclaimed allegiance to Vatican II by citing council documents. The response of all eight has been silence. They characterize legitimate Church authority as unresponsive and unwilling to be held accountable.  Yet when charged with either ignorance or misrepresentation of the teachings of the ecumenical council they claim as the basis for their actions, they do not respond to a call for accountability. Meet three of them.

P>GRAND RAPIDS, MI--As Catholic Online has reported, a group calling itself the "American Catholic Council" (ACC) is planning a national conference in Detroit in June of 2011. ACC claims an "American Catholic Church" would be no different from the universal Catholic Church in matters of faith-only in matters of discipline. "That's what the [Second Vatican] Council Fathers meant when they talked about the need for enculturated Churches around the world," they claim on their web site, "whose communities could each be Catholic in their own way, but always in communion with the pope." (The lower case "p" is theirs, not mine.)

Some of these differing matters of so-called "discipline" include the ordination of women, the faithful electing their own bishops and parish priests, and the acceptance of homosexual, bisexual and transgendered lifestyles-while remaining "always in communion with the pope." ACC claims to act "in the spirit of Vatican II," bringing about "the structural change in our church which was intended by Vatican II and which the Holy Spirit now calls us to do."

I recently emailed eight members of ACC's national planning committee, asking them to cite specific Vatican II documents to support their agenda. The response of all eight has been silence. They characterize legitimate Church authority as unresponsive and unwilling to be held accountable.  Yet when charged with either ignorance or misrepresentation of the teachings of the ecumenical council they claim as the basis for their actions, they do not respond to a call for accountability.

While awaiting their replies I would like to briefly introduce three of these people I have contacted, so readers of Catholic Online can become familiar with who is planning this conference.

Janet Hauter is a co-chair of the "American Catholic Council," and vice-president of "Voice of the Faithful." Presuming to speak for Jesus at a gathering of the Catholic Coalition for Church Reform in 2009, Hauter said: "We need to repackage the dream of church that Jesus intended. Jesus did not intend an institution bound by hierarchical rules."

Hauter's premise is that Jesus has lost control of his Church to human beings, allowing them to turn it into something he does not intend. She holds this view despite Jesus' numerous promises noted in Scripture to be with his Church always, to act and speak through it, and his promise that his Church would be forever guided by the Holy Spirit. To accept a premise that the Church has become something Jesus does not intend is to render him powerless over the actions and decisions of men, and to deny his divine, supernatural presence in Church governance.

This disturbing notion is compounded when one considers ACC's affirmation that "the Holy Spirit was present at Vatican II in a special way." Hauter contends that the truths re-affirmed by the documents of this Spirit-led council-such as the Church's hierarchical structure being instituted by Jesus, the primacy of the Pope, the Pope and the Bishops as the true voice of Christ on earth, and the laity as subject to their decisions and authority, among other tenets contrary to ACC's agenda-are not really Jesus' intentions. According to Hauter's premise, either Jesus' intentions are at odds with the work of the Holy Spirit at Vatican II, or both Jesus and the Holy Spirit have surrendered power and authority over the Church to human beings and are being held captive to them.

Let's move on to another member of ACC's national planning committee who has yet to respond to my correspondence, Leonard Swidler. He is the co-founder of the Association for the Rights of Catholics in the Church. In 2004 Swidler wrote an open letter to then-Cardinal Ratzinger to criticize his "Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church and in the World." Swidler wrote: "You get off on the wrong foot in your very first words. You write: 'The Church, expert in humanity,.' And of course, by 'The Church,' in this instance you mean Joseph Ratzinger." How ironic, coming from a man who himself claims to speak for the Church and its most recent ecumenical council, though its documents clearly refute the agenda he is trying to advance. Swidler also shares Hauter's premise that pronouncements by Church authorities are merely the ideas of human beings, not Jesus, in opposition to the teachings of Vatican II.

Finally, meet Anthony Padovano, the first president of CORPUS. The acronym stands for "Corps of Retired Priests United for Service," though they are actually laicized priests who want the celibacy discipline eliminated. While ACC claims not to differ at all with the Roman Catholic Church on matters of faith, this member of their national planning committee has publicly disputed Church teaching about original sin, the virginal conception of Jesus, the resurrection, women's ordination, and abortion. Enough said.

Formal endorsers of the "American Catholic Council," in addition to the organizations already named here, include the Women's Ordination Conference, Dignity USA, New Ways Ministry, Future Church, Call to Action, Take Back Our Church, Catholic Diocese of One Spirit, Women-Church Convergence, and Elephants in the Living Room.

Catholic Online will continue to keep readers abreast about this movement, exposing both the people behind it and their numerous errors. We will also continue to invite its leaders to comment, specifically, asking them to provide documentation to prove their agenda flows from Vatican II. Stay tuned.

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James Penrice is an author of nine books, a correspondent for catholic Athletes for Christ, and a contributor to Catholic Online.

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