Call to Action
2135 W. Roscoe Chicago, IL 60618
tel. 773 404-0004 fax 773 404-1610
e-mail: cta@cta usa.org
http://www.cta-usa.org

June 2007

Dear Tony,

2007 is unfolding as a critical year for justice and peace, both in our Catholic Church and in our nation's Capitol. In the Church, the most prophetic leader among U.S. bishops, Tom Gumbleton of Detroit, has been reined in by the Vatican for speaking out for victims of clergy sex abuse. Tom has been stripped of his Detroit parish, and cannot even give a talk in any diocese without the local bishop's permission. When invited to speak by our Call To Action chapters in Tucson and Phoenix, the local bishops forbade him. But people like you gathered anyway, and listened to his prophetic message on videotape, with media coverage reaching thousands.

We invite you to become a member of Call To Action. We are 25,000 grassroots Catholics in all 50 states, with 53 regional chapters. We work through active nonviolence to make our Church a force for peace and social justice.

Inside our Church, when authorities wield power unjustly, CTA members organize resistance. Joan Chittister opened our 30th anniversary conference in Milwaukee Nov. 3-5 with the call of Yahweh to Moses and the Israelites in Egypt: "Rise up. People of God!" And people are responding. Our new JustChurch Project is underway. With a map of the U.S. on our website highlighting the flashpoints of our nonviolent resistance to church oppression, our JustChurch Response Network enables CTA members to defend Bishop Gumbleton against unjust Vatican action. In New Orleans, where Archbishop Hughes after Katrina attempted to close an historic black parish at the center of relief efforts, local protests with CTA backing won a reversal. Now Hughes has apologized to the parish while issuing a strong pastoral letter on racial justice. In Brownsville, Tex., a PBS television station owned by the diocese censored a Frontline documentary about a survivor of priest sexual abuse. Our members' nonviolent action made headlines: showing the film in a local theater with survivor and filmmaker on hand for questions. Soon the station aired the program after all.

On Capitol Hill, a new Congress has passed war funding with a clear timetable for phased withdrawal of troops from Iraq, but the president has vetoed it. CTA is an endorser of the Christian Peace Witness -- 400 peace and justice organizations who marked the fourth anniversary of the Iraq War with an interfaith Peace Witness at National Cathedral and the White House. Meanwhile 1,300 peace vigils were held in cities and towns across America. Please help us. Jesuit Fr. John Dear told CTA last fall: "Every major movement for peace and
justice in our history was able to turn a corner when its members nonviolently and illegally disrupted the big business of war and injustice."

CTA was also an organizational sponsor of Ecumenical Advocacy Days -- 1,000 grassroots Christians from NETWORK, Mary knoll, the National Council of Churches and many major denominations who lobbied in Washington (March 6-9) to save the children — the starving overseas, the war refugees, the forgotten of the Gulf Coast since Katrina, the neglected in our own cities.

Please join us with a $50 or $35 donation so that as Call To Action we can expand our nonviolent efforts for peace and justice. Thanks for your support.

[Signature] [Signature]
Sheila S. Daley Dan Daly -- Cal1 To Action Co-Directors

P.S. Send your gift today. You'll help support ongoing actions, receive monthly publications, enjoy a discount for our annual conference, and join a growing community that takes seriously the nonviolent Gospel of Jesus.