Who is the Culture of Conversation?

We are leaders—women, men, lay, religious, clergy—of diverse Catholic organizations who are calling for a Culture of Conversation to transform the culture of silence that prevails in our Church. This page explains how we came to be; how we created the Ephphatha ("Be Opened") statement; and our hopes for the future.


What brought this diverse group together?

In the summer of 2001, the Erie Benedictines faced a potentially explosive situation. Officials in Rome were trying to silence Joan Chittister, OSB, with regard to her speaking at the International Women's Ordination Conference in Dublin.

Christine Vladimiroff, OSB, Prioress of the Erie community, claimed the Benedictine tradition of authority and obedience in her response to Rome's intervention. She decided not to ask Joan to withdraw under the vow of obedience. This courageous stand prevailed with the officials in Rome.

This occurred right before the 25th Anniversary Call To Action (CTA) conferences. That year CTA held three national conferences in the West, East and Midwest. During each of the conferences a group of speakers and leaders of reform organizations met to discuss this and other situations of silencing in our church.

As we discussed the potential of this moment for changing the unhealthy culture of silence, we realized that too often, reform groups and institutional Church organizations do not understand each other's strategies. Too often if an organization does not support a public action, it is construed as non-support for the issue. Public actions in turn are too often seen as ineffective and potential affronts to the hierarchy. Rarely, does either group engage in conversation with the other to find out the real intent and hopes of the actions.

We felt what was called for at this stage of the renewal movement was to bring together leaders in key institutional church organizations with leaders from reform groups to explore the issue of silencing in our church and to see if, and, how we saw ourselves working together on this issue.

Robert Silva, President of the National Federation of Priest's Council (NFPC), Dan Daley and Claire Noonan from Call To Action and Nancy Sylvester, IHM, former President of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, issued the invitation.

Our first meeting was on March 5, 2002.


How did the Ephphatha statement emerge?

Ten people from a mix of organizations attended the March 5 meeting. The expectation for the meeting was simple. We had stated in the invitation that just coming to a greater understanding of how we each approach change within the church would be fruitful in and of itself. There was no assumption of any common action. However, by the end of the meeting, the group decided to continue to meet. We saw the destructive effects of silencing within the Church and wanted to see if we could together do something to address it.

At the time of our meeting, the scandal regarding clerical abuse began to receive much more publicity. Because of everyone's concern about this, time was given to discussing the developments in this area. This issue highlighted our common concern but also the different constraints we experience in responding to it. It became clear that a specific issue focus was not the most helpful approach to address the issue of silencing within the Church. The group continued to meet throughout the year believing we could do something but not yet clear about any common action.

Then, in December, 2002, we decided to issue a statement calling for a Culture of Conversation in the Church to transform the culture of silence currently prevailing. Our audiences were reform minded church workers and organizations. We placed the statement as an ad in America, a periodical which we felt the Bishops and more centrist reform folks read. It was in the May 26-June 2, 2003 issue, the issue closest to Pentecost.

The statement, entitled "Ephphatha-Be Opened" addressed Vatican II's vision of a church that was marked by conversation, consultation, and collaboration indicating that this has yet to take root in our church. It spoke to how a culture of silence prevails and urged that such silence must end. We did not urge taking positions on the crucial issues facing us but rather invited people to break the silence and invite conversation in situations such as, where Catholics are forbidden to meet in parishes; where those who work for reform in the Church are accused of disloyalty; where laity are prevented from fully participating in the life of the Church. It asked for the courage to speak, the humility to listen and the willingness to change. (Click here to read the entire statement and here to see the original endorsers.)

The ad generated additional endorsers and contributors to the project. We decided to place the ad once again so as to include many of the new endorsers. The "Ephphatha" statement appeared in the winter 2003 issue of Church, the magazine of the National Pastoral Life Center.


Where are our hopes?

We hope to stimulate respectful conversations among a broad spectrum of Catholics. We want to encourage Catholics to engage each other in conversations when faced with silencing about contemporary challenges facing us as a Church. We want to promote conversations among Catholics prior to being faced with a situation of silencing and assist them in creating a mechanism that would foster open and mutual communication and decision-making. We will work so that these conversations occur in an atmosphere of trust, hope and openness to one another and to the Holy Spirit

To help with this task, we created this web site as a tool to assist people in engaging in these conversations.


Who are "the we" that is moving the Culture of Conversation forward?

The "We" is the steering committee who continued to work after that original meeting.

We are: Jon Nilson, past president, Catholic Theological Society of America, Helen Marie Burns, RSM, leadership team of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, Nancy Sylvester, IHM, president of the Institute for Communal Contemplation and Dialogue, Dan Daley, co-director of the Call to Action (CTA), Vic Doucette, Director of Programs & Publications for the National Federation of Priests' Councils, Crystal Chan, church reform organizer CTA, Christine Schenk,CSJ, director of FutureChurch, and Christine Vladimiroff,OSB, prioress of the Erie Benedictines.


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