Naperville women leading push for reforms in Catholic church

Rachelle Hickey remembers the Catholic Church of her childhood as a big tent in which everyone was welcome.

The Naperville woman doesn't feel that way anymore.

In the decades since Vatican II (1962-65) brought a greater openness to dialogue about issues of faith in the Catholic Church, the centuries-old rules have hardened, she said. The church's positions on equity for women, divorce, laity engagement and inclusion of the gay community are driving many Catholics away, she said.

So last year, Hickey and the like-minded Margie Tarpey of Naperville formed a group called West Suburban Call to Action to work for reform within the church.

"Starting this group was a matter of conscience for me," Hickey said. "To remain a Catholic, I really believed I needed to work for change."

With a core committee of supporters mainly from Naperville and Wheaton, the group has been holding events designed to attract broader attention.

Organizers, for example, have invited social activist Roy Bourgeois to speak from 4 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 21, at Celebration Community Life Center, 919 S. Washington St., Naperville. Bourgeois had been a priest in the Maryknoll order for 40 years when he was dismissed in 2012 for participating in the ordination of a woman.

"We are thrilled that he's going to talk to our group," Hickey said. "This is a great opportunity for the Western suburbs and we want people to know about it."

Call for reform

Affiliated with the national Call to Action based in Chicago, the West Suburban group advocates for equality for women, including ordination as priests; greater inclusion of the LGBT community in the church; social justice; fair treatment of church workers; and involvement of the laity in decision-making.

Despite being an active member and founder of the St. Vincent de Paul Society at St. Raphael Catholic Church in Naperville, Tarpey said she doesn't feel she is treated equally.

"I find it extremely irritating that I could not be a woman deacon," Tarpey said. "I do feel that I'm a second-class citizen in my church."

The church also should be welcoming the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, Tarpey said. Asserting that many Catholics agree, Tarpey pointed to the outpouring of support for Colin Collette, a longtime music director in a Catholic church in Inverness who was fired after he became engaged to his gay partner and posted the news on Facebook.

"I know people who don't feel welcome in the church," Tarpey said. "No one is getting hurt by gay marriage or women's ordination."

Hickey said she respects that other Catholics might have different points of view, but there should be room for dialogue and discussion.

"We don't want to promote division," she said. "It's really about being able to talk and hear each other's stories. When you hear each other's stories, then you really understand how God is at work in everybody's life."

Edward Flavin, director of communications for the Diocese of Joliet, said, to his knowledge, no one on the diocesan staff has had contact with West Suburban Call to Action and so the diocese is unfamiliar with the group.

"Our 129 parishes and missions engage the Catholic faithful in catechesis and understanding of church teaching," he said. "We would encourage the Catholic faithful to engage their parish communities and priests if they have questions about our teachings."

A poll commissioned by the U.S. Spanish-language network Univision, and reported in the Daily Herald earlier this year, showed many Catholics worldwide disagree with church teaching on divorce, abortion and contraception and are split on whether women and married men should become priests.

Catholics in the Western world generally held more liberal views, according to the survey findings, with only 36 percent of Catholics in the U.S. agreeing with the ban on female priests and 40 percent of U.S. Catholics opposing gay marriage and 54 percent supporting it.

An active member of St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church in Naperville, Hickey said she feels hurt when she sees people leave the church over these issues.

"We're active Catholics. We're concerned about the future of the church. We see people leaving the church and we don't want that," she said. "We want people to remain with the church and feel they can express their opinions."

The Rev. Don McLaughlin, pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle where Hickey is a member, said that as a priest he must express the official teachings of the church. However, he acknowledged that Hickey and Tarpey are by no means alone in their views.

"Certainly, they express the opinions of many in the church," he said.

Who is the church?

The church is made up of laity, who should have a voice in decision-making, Tarpey said.

"As laity, we do feel it's our church," she said. "We are the church. We are the people of God."

Hickey and Tarpey said that although they believe many local Catholics support their points of view, the church as an organization seems stuck in rigid positions. Their group meets in a Lutheran church because no local Catholic church would allow them space on the premises.

"A lot of clergy are very afraid of the hierarchy," Tarpey said. "The hierarchy controls their pensions, their salaries, their assignments."

Bob Heineman, chapter liaison for the national Call to Action, said there was greater openness among Catholic hierarchy to reexamine church positions on a number of issues after Vatican II. The U.S. Bishops Conference held a Call to Action conference in Detroit in 1976 after hearing testimony from more than 800,000 Catholics over a two-year period.

The conference issued a "Call for Reform in the Catholic Church" that said the church must stand against injustice in society and re-evaluate its own positions on issues that included celibacy for priests, male-only clergy, homosexuality, birth control and the involvement of the laity in decision making.

Call to Action formed two years later in Chicago because of a lack of confidence that the bishops would follow through, Heineman said. Nationally, Call to Action has more than 25,000 members and 50 local chapters, he said.

"We've seen a lot of change over 30 years," Heineman said.

Eighty percent of pastoral workers are now women, he said. Two hundred women in the United States have been ordained as Catholic priests since 2005, with the ordinations being done secretly by bishops, Heineman said. One poll showed 70 percent of American Catholics support gay marriage, he said.

Call to Action draws its positions from Catholic traditions that may differ from what the current hierarchy is saying, he said.

"Are we a church of hierarchy and rules, or are we a church of inclusion?" he said. "We are speaking for the people of God."

Hickey said she believes the Catholic Church is at a crossroads.

"A lot of what we want to do is educate people," she said. "It's all about dialogue, opening people to ideas and to get people thinking."

For information, visit ws-cta.org or cta-usa.org.

If you go

What: Catholic social activist Roy Bourgeois speaks to Western Suburban Call to Action

When: 4 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 21

Where: Celebration Community Life Center, 919 S. Washington St., Naperville

Cost: Free

Info: ws_cta@comcast.net