The tone was set from the opening ceremony in a packed Grand Ballroom at the Galt House.Dozens of nuns stood in front with candles in hand as more than 1,500 people — accompanied by spirited singing and drumming — raised their hands in blessing on them in their struggles with the church hierarchy.
With that and other events, Roman Catholics from around the country converged Friday evening for the start of a three-day conference to call for sweeping changes in their church’s teachings and practices.
The group Call to Action is holding its annual conference in Louisville for the first time.
The group has called for such things as an affirmation of gays and lesbians, the ordination of women and the removal of exclusively masculine language for God in the liturgy.
The group has clashed with the church hierarchy — and a Vatican statement said it held “unacceptable” positions — but members contend they are drawing inspiration from the reformist Second Vatican Council, which opened 50 years ago this fall under a theme of “aggiornamento,” an Italian phrase for bringing up to date.
In an opening call-and-response, speakers recited phrases such as “We call forth justice from our church” and “We call forth justice from our bishops.”
Each time, the attendees responded with, “Aggiornamento!”
“I don’t need to tell anyone in this room the church is slow to change,” Call to Action’s executive director, Jim FitzGerald, said in opening remarks. “At times it may seem impossible.”
But he credited the group with keeping him within the faith. “When I was in college I thought I would be leaving the church,” he said. But now he is raising a family “in the Catholic faith I love,” he said.
The Archdiocese of Louisville issued a short statement when asked about the conference:
“Call To Action is not officially recognized by the Church, and this conference is not sponsored or supported by the Archdiocese,” it said.
The group has run into conflict with church leaders elsewhere.
In 2006, the Vatican upheld a decree by the bishop of Lincoln, Neb., declaring members of Call to Action and various other groups to be excommunicated.
“The judgment of the Holy See is that the activities of Call to Action in the course of these years are in contrast with the Catholic faith due to views and positions held which are unacceptable from a doctrinal and disciplinary standpoint,” wrote the prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Bishops.
FitzGerald maintained Call to Action is “an organization of very faithful Catholics. We love the church. ... The goal isn’t to dissent. The goal is to play a role in work for church justice.”
Local participants said they had been looking forward to the program.
Joseph Martos of Louisville, who said he has supported such changes in the church for decades, said it’s energizing to see so many like-minded Catholics together.
“Too often we feel somewhat isolated and alone,” Martos said.
Jim Williams, also of Louisville, agreed.
“It’s refreshing to see so many people excited about the future,” he said.
Speakers in the opening program challenged many priorities of the Vatican and other Roman Catholic bishops. Announcements included plans for a women-led Mass later in the conference, defying Vatican teachings that only male priests can preside at Mass.
Some spoke in support of nuns following Vatican criticism of the umbrella organization for most women religious orders over what it called doctrinal and liturgical deviations.
And members loudly cheered the re-election of President Barack Obama — who had a slight edge among Catholic voters.
Bishops had made a high priority of fighting, under religious-liberty grounds, the Obama administration’s stances in favor of the right to abortion and a mandate under the Affordable Care Act that faith-based employers provide access to health insurance that includes contraceptives.
Bishops told voters to “vote their conscience, and we did,” FitzGerald said.
The keynote speaker for the opening night was Diane Nash, a Catholic who was one of the leaders of student sit-ins, Freedom Rides and other civil rights activism in the 1960s, enduring numerous jailings and other hardships.
She spoke of “agapic energy” — based on the Greek biblical term for unconditional love — in resisting oppression.
“If you recognize that people are not the enemy, you can love and respect the person at the same time you attack the attitude or action of that person,” she said.
She cited the example of a Nashville restaurant owner who at first resisted the sit-ins but eventually convinced fellow restaurateurs they could integrate and remain profitable.
“Wouldn’t it have been a shame if we had killed or injured him, thinking that he was the enemy?” she said.
Such principles are “applicable to the issues on which you want to work,” she told the group.
FitzGerald said in an interview before the conference that Catholics who embraced the Vatican II reforms at the time identified strongly with their religion.
“When things would get tough, however tough is described, the thought of leaving the Catholic Church just didn’t even enter the mind,” he said.
Today, he said, with religious identity weakening across denominations, the challenge is to persuade people disenchanted with church leaders not to leave.
“If the institutional church doesn’t bend and people think that’s the church, they don’t have an option,” he said.
“We need to educate Catholics ... that we are the church,” he said.
About 1,500 people are registered for the conference.
Call to Action has about 25,000 members and supporters and dozens of chapters, FitzGerald said.
Among those planning to attend is the Rev. James Flynn, a retired priest in the Archdiocese of Louisville. He noted that the conference topics includes not just church reform but efforts to combat racism, promote peace and work for social justice in the workplace and other areas.
“It’s to bring people together and see how we can move forward with the hopes of Vatican II,” he said.