Hello,

I thought I might bring another dissident organization to your attention.

It is the St. Louis based, CAN or Catholic Action Network for Social Justice: www.catholicactionnetwork.org/site/weblog.php

It came to my attention when someone noted that the recently excommunicated board of trustees for the recently declared "no-longer Catholic" St. Stanislau Kostka parish is hosting their 2006 convocation (see flyer).  I note that their flyer still refers to it as a "Catholic Church" and that one of their workshops is "Uniquely Catholic:  Prophetic and Creative Responses to Heirarchy".  That's rather startling considering that the board members' creative response to the heirarchy was to thumb their collective noses at 4 of our Archbishops over the years who have been trying to bring their ownership structure into compliance with canon law.  They also illegally and unilaterally changed their bylaws, incontravention of the rules as spelled out in the original bylaws to remove the Archbishop from oversight of the board of directors.  They also appealed to the Vatican to back them up but when the Vatican unequivacally told them that they were way out of line and that they needed to adhere to both the admonitions of their bishop and to the rule of canon law they thumbed their noses at the Vatican as well and hired a suspended priest to do their bidding and administer their sacraments for them.

At the first Mass for this suspended and excommunicated priest at his newly deactived parish assorted dissidents swarmed in from around the country to support them in their fight against our Archbishop and the heirarchy of the Church and filled it to overflowing proportions, such that many of them had to view it via closed circuit TV in an adjacent building.

In their letter welcoming Archbishop Burke to St. Louis, CAN wrote (among other things): The Archdiocese should initiate an honest and inclusive dialogue on the role of women in church decision-making, and on the question of women's ordination. It is necessary not only because of the shortage of priests, but because we are standing in the way of the work of the Spirit to do otherwise.

They might be too small or too regional for inclusion on your list of dissident groups, but I thought I would bring them to your attention, just in case.

May Jesus Christ be praised!

Your brother-in-Christ,

Jeff