AUSCP Assembly 2017 in Atlanta

Just back from the AUSCP assembly held in Atlanta, GA, June 19-22, 2017.

About 175 members of the Association of US Catholic Priests met for their organization’s sixth annual assembly to focus on “Peacemaking In Our Fractured Society.”

Bishop Gregory Hartmayer, OFM, of Savannah led an optional retreat day prior to the opening of the assembly. Also included in the schedule was a  prayer service led by members of the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus.

Speakers for the assembly included Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta (“Peace Not As The World Gives”), Jack Jezreel, founder of JustFaith Ministries (“Pope Francis and a New Paradigm for Parishes’), and Father Bryan Massingale, professor of theology at Fordham University (“To Redeem the Soul of America”).

Assembly attendees  prioritized goals and resolutions for the association’s focus in the coming year.  The top three goals were: 1) Immigration (promotion of  immigration  reform and urging members to lead parishioners, deanery groups and diocesan agencies in study and prayer about this issue in the United States).

2)  Seminary Formation (establishing  a study group to contribute to the US Catholic Bishops’ current project of reviewing priestly formation, especially in the light of Pope Francis’ challenging priests to revitalize their ministry, e.g., to experience the “smell of the sheep,” to see “the church as a field hospital”).

3) Ordaining Married Men to Priesthood (encouraging our bishops and the USCCB to engage in open discussion about ordination of married men,  viri probati,  to insure adequate response to the needs of our country’s 17,000 parishes regarding  priestly pastors and the Eucharist).

Among other issues under discussion by assembly members were: 1)  a resolution asking US Bishops to develop a national plan for the pastoral care of “priestless parishes,” 2) a request to the USCCB to petition the Holy See for authorization of deacons to administer the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick.

AUSCP has already established working groups focusing on promoting reformation of the Roman Missal and promotion of Pope Francis’ Laudato Si  initiative, “caring for our common home.”

Members were also asked to pray for the canonizations of : 1) Sister Dorothy Stang, SND de Namur, murdered in Brazil in February of 2005; 2) Father Stanley Rother, first diocesan priest from the United States to be honored as a martyr (assassinated in July of 1981 in Guatemala); 3) Father Augustus Tolton, born in 1854 to enslaved parents in Missouri, and later the first Black man to be publicly recognized as a Roman Catholic priest ordained in the United States; 4) Father Solanus Casey, OFM Cap., known in Detroit for  great faith and spiritual counseling and as a worker of miracles, who died in July of 1957.

Assembly members visited Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, where  Dr Martin Luther King Jr’s grandfather and father were pastors, and the site of Dr Martin Luther King Jr’s funeral. Nearby is the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site, which includes his boyhood home, surrounding neighborhood, burial site, and a museum. Also in the area is the first Black Catholic Parish in Atlanta, Our Lady of Lourdes, established in 1912, where the assembly members gathered with Archbishop Wilton Gregory as presider for Mass.

Members were introduced to Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe, who has agreed to be episcopal moderator for the AUSCP.

Next year’s assembly is set for Albuquerque, June 25-28, 2018, with key-note speakers Father Richard Rohr, Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego, and Archbishop Wester of Santa Fe.

Founded in 2011, the AUSCP’s mission is  “To be an association of U.S. Catholic priests offering mutual support and a collegial voice through dialogue, contemplation and prophetic action on issues affecting Church and society.”  The AUSCP’s vision is  “To be a Priests’ Voice of Hope and Joy within our Pilgrim Church. .”

Further information about AUSCP is available at http://www.uscatholicpriests.org.

AUSCP Assembly 2014

The third annual assembly of the Association of US Catholic Priests (AUSCP) took place June 23-26, 2014, in St Louis, Missouri, bringing together 230 of its 1000 members.

The theme was “Dei Verbum, Revelation in Our Lives and Time,” a review of  the dogmatic constitution on divine revelation, a major document from the Second Vatican Council.

Four nationally known speakers (Scripture expert Donald Senior, Capuchin Franciscan Michael Crosby, biblical theologian Sister Dianne Bergant, and theologian Father Jim Bacik) developed the theme, assessing application of Dei Verbum for today and offering suggestions for its on-going implementation. (Their insights are summarized below.)

Four pre-assembly workshops focused on 1) consensus building and decision making (offered by Father Doug Doussan), 2)  ministry to the Afro-American Community (Father Paul Marshall, SM, and Father Clarence Williams, CPPS),  3) ministry to Hispanics (Father David Garcia of Catholic Relief Services), and 4) the priest-labor initiative (Father Tony Cutcher of the National Federation of Priests Councils).

Also providing input via Skype were Father Brendan Hoban, an administrative team member of ACP (a priests’ association in Ireland) and Father Helmut Schüller, a member of the Austrian Priests Initiative. Each described the goals, membership and hopes of his respective organization as well as the status of the Church in Ireland and Austria.

Archbishop Quinn receives award
 from AUSCP Chair Father Dave Cooper

Archbishop John Quinn, the retired ordinary of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, presided at Mass, and was the recipient of one of the AUSCP’s awards honoring outstanding contributions to the Church in the light of Vatican II. Theologian/author Father Jim Bacik was also honored with an AUSCP award.

Proposals

AUSCP members in attendance at the assembly discussed and voted on eight proposals as goals and resolutions for the association’s focus in the coming year.

The membership agreed to petition the US Catholic Bishops to address the translation problems of the current Roman Missal and to petition the US Catholic Bishops to refuse to allow the principles which produced this awkward and sometimes incomprehensible rendering to be applied to other liturgical translations. AUSCP members have been asked to forward examples from the Roman Missal which they find difficult to read or which may reflect an inappropriate theology for our time.

Other proposals included: 1) affirmation and promotion of the Catholic Common Ground Initiative (the encouragement of dialog proposed by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin shortly before his death);  2) study of immigration reform as recommended by the United States Catholic Bishops; 3) urge the USCCB to request ordination of married men to the priesthood in the light of Pope Francis’ suggestion that he is open to such a proposal; 4) issuance of a statement urging payment of all workers’ pensions; 5) ongoing support of an earlier resolution regarding lay and clergy participation in the selection of bishops.

Two additional proposals addressed increasing the AUSCP membership and ways of fostering dialogue with Bishops and AUSCP members.  All eight proposals passed with large majorities.

The Membership

Elections to the AUSCP Board were also held, with Frank Eckart and Bernie Survil being re-elected, and Joseph Ruggieri as the newest board member.

The new AUSCP chairman is Bob Bonnot (Youngstown), VP is Kevin Clinton (Minneapolis-St Paul), Secretary is Jim Schexnayder (Oakland), and Treasurer is Frank Eckart (Toledo).

Priests in attendance were diocesan and religious order clergy (e.g., Benedictine, Franciscan, Oblates of Mary),  coming from across the country, with eight from Cincinnati, three from Covington, at least one from Texas.

The Assembly 

The opportunity to share with like-minded ministers of the Church and to be re-charged with the spirit and letter of Vatican II are among the primary benefits of participating in an annual assembly.

During meals and over drinks, priests from a variety of Church ministries, personal backgrounds, and diocesan assignments exchange experiences, frustrations, hopes, and moments of grace as they carry on their commitment to Christ and the Church.

Some have been abbots. Most have been pastors. One was suspended by his bishop for giving communion to a Lutheran. Several were or are teachers. Many are retired (the gray hair or lack thereof was obvious). A handful were missionaries at home or in foreign missions. All are eager to support and implement the vision they received from Vatican II and are encouraged by the teaching, simplicity, and direction being provided by Pope Francis. (A cut-out of the pope’s photo was a major attraction, even to other guests at the Marriott!)

Liturgy of the Hours and Mass are key elements in the Assembly’s four-day program.

Three well-known Catholic song-writers provided an evening concert: David Haas (“We Are Called”), Marty Haugen (“All Are Welcome”) and Michael Joncas (“On Eagle’s Wings”)—the music played and sung the way the composers intended.

The Speakers

Father Don Senior reviewed the development of biblical studies in the Catholic Church, starting with Pope Pius XII’s Divino Afflante Spiritu (1943) which encouraged Catholic scholars to explore the historical-criticism method of biblical study to Vatican II’s Dei Verbum (1965) and on to the Pontifical Biblical Institute’s The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church (1973).

Focusing on Dei Verbum, Senior found five important dynamics in that document which should inspire our understanding and use of the Sacred Scriptures in the Church’s preaching, teaching and prayer: 1) rooting divine revelation in the Trinity (recognizing that ours is a relational God, and thereby helping us to understand God’s reason for creating in the first place); 2) recognition that humans, made in the divine image, have the capacity for relationship with the Creator and even communion with this God; 3) the acknowledgement that God is not aloof, but is indeed involved in human activity, present to the world; 4) appreciation that the culmination and definitive expression of God’s revelation is the Word-Made-Flesh; and 5) and acceptance that the word of God is entrusted to the Apostles and the apostolic Church, sent to repair the world.

Father Michael Crosby asked which Gospel priests and people are to proclaim. He noted that Jesus preached the Kingdom of God and that Paul preached Jesus Christ. In Crosby’s analysis the true Gospel of Jesus was subversive in as much as it differed from the good news of imperial Rome and further was an archetype for all relations on earth creating a model of how humas are to live by imitating the source of life who is God.

Drawing conclusions from the Trinitarian understanding of God, Crosby explains that the Church is to promote the “house” (oikos) of God in which all persons are equal, all members share equitably, and there is no domination of one over another. Quoting Pope Francis, Crosby concluded that “no one is useless in the Church,” and all members should recall the observation of Dom Helder Camara that “your lives may be the only Gospel your brothers and sisters may ever hear.”

Sister Dianne Bergant, CSA, suggested that base communities in mission lands were fertile fields for the new energized study of Scrupture promoted by Vatican II. In the past Scripture was often used to prove Church dogma, but in recent decades the Scriptures became the ground of dogma.

Sister Dianne further noted that interpretation of biblical passages used in preaching requires recognition of cultural and societal differences in the audience. The wealthy listener may interpret “Blessed are the poor in spirit” quite differently from the listener who is economically destitute. Preachers must also be wary of adding to what the Scripture really says.

Father Jim Bacik presented four ways of reading, understanding and preaching a Gospel passage, based on the theology and experience of the preacher. Preacher #1 (he called him Abraham) may think of himself as a cultural warrior and interpret every reading as a stage for attacking the cultural values of the day; he puts Catholicism on the line against the values of the world. 

Preacher #2 (he called him Isaac) is caught up in the theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar, and may reflect the notion that the teachings of Vatican II were hijacked by liberals or may emphasize the truth and beauty of Christ as outlined in Balthasar’s Trilogy, 16 volumes focusing on the Glory of the Lord.

Preacher #3 (Jacob) is a student of Karl Rahner, thinking of Vatican II as a dialogic approach, describing his preaching as a dialog between the divine and the human. This preacher will be especially eager to address the experiences and needs of the people, fully conscious of the a focal point in his homily that touches the audience where they are in their circumstances of life. 

Preacher #4 (Joseph) approaches his homily from experience of poverty and societal brokenness; he may find Gaudium et spes (Vatican II’s Constitution on the Church in the Modern World) as too hopeful. He wants to identify with the brokenness of society and offer the corrections and encouragement that come from the Gospel and Christ.

AUSCP Assembly in 2015

The fourth annual assembly for the Association of US Catholic Priests is planned for June 29-July 2, 2015, in St. Louis. Additional information about the AUSCP, the form for membership, etc. are available on line at the AUSCP website or uscatholicpriests.org.

AUSCP Meeting: Agenda and Votes

About 200 priests from across the country assembled in Seattle, Washington, June 24-27, for the second annual assembly of the Association of United States Catholic Priests (AUSCP).

Key-note speakers addressed issues related to the Second Vatican Council's Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium.

Among the assembly's agenda was consideration of 15 proposals offered by members as potential resolutions from the AUSCP.

The pattern of acceptance and rejection of the proposals suggests that the AUSCP is taking a moderate stand in its efforts to renew the Church and support Vatican II.

The association voted to accept a proposal to promote ongoing discussion of and support for changes in Canon Law which would allow the ordination of women to the order of the diaconate.

Membership, however, rejected the proposal calling for study of and open discussion for the ordination of women and married men to the priesthood.

The proposal to urge the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to encourage the re-introduction of general absolution (in reference to the Sacrament of Penance) in U. S. parishes was also passed.

Other proposals rejected included: asking the USCCB to appoint a bishop as liaison to the AUSCP; asking the pope to allow use of the former (1974) Sacramentary; asking that the selection of diocesan bishops become a more transparent process in which the local churches have a voice.

Discussions about the various proposals included highly nuanced argumentation, not necessarily opposed to some resolutions in principle but rejecting them as worded or with understanding that corollaries to the proposal may be misunderstood or misdirected.

Journalist Bob Kaiser, who was Time magazine's correspondent at the Council, offered anecdotes about his experiences and perceptions. He recalled the many times  he had seated around his dinner table some of the "stars" of the Council: bishops, theologians (Rahner, Kung, Congar), engaging them in assessing the struggles and direction set by the Council.

He said again and again, "The Council was a learning experience for the bishops."

The current Tablet journalist at the Vatican Bob Mickens spoke about the election of Pope Francis and the effect his unusual papal style is having on the Vatican bureaucracy and on bishops' conferences around the world.

He noted that some have criticized Papa Francesco for change only in style, but Mickens reminded the assembly that historian John O'Malley insists that after all is said and done style turns out to be substantive.

Theologian Catherine Clifford and canon lawyer Jim Coriden addressed issues rising from Lumen Gentium and the efforts of some people to restrict the aggiornamento Pope John XXIII sorely wanted for the Church.

Priest/pastor/author Pat Brennan was unable to speak to the assembly because of illness. Bishop Donald Trautman, former ordinary of the Erie diocese, substituted, urging the AUSCP to continue its efforts at renewal and to enter into dialogue with the episcopacy.

Among AUSCP's goals and objectives for 2013 is widening awareness that the AUSCP exists, building bridges between the AUSCP and religious men and women, raising funds to develop a support staff, and inviting brother priests to gatherings which engage the vision of Vatican II.

Common prayer, meals, discussions and recreation created a stronger bond among the nearly 200 who attended. Total membership is slightly less than 1000 priests.

AUSCP was founded in 2011.

The AUSCP website is http://www.uscatholicpriests.org/

The Old Guys in the AUSCP

The average age of the members of the Association of U. S. Catholic Priests (AUSCP) is about 70, and one of its aims is to promote the direction and spirit of the Second Vatican Council.

I recently read a blog critical of the AUSCP, a blog which took special note of the average age of the members and commented, "Are you getting the picture here? This is not a youth movement."

The blogger continued, "I'm saying this movement is fading....For a growing number of Catholics, Vatican II is simply another part of  Catholic history...What's coming, not too far in the future now, is a re-appraisal...a more sober assessment of Vatican II's strengths and weaknesses, a rediscovery of what Vatican II really says...When that happens, I think the old, V2 pro or con dialectic will be as gone as the dinosaurs."

This assessment may be true. Twenty years from now most of the current members of the AUSCP will be dead. Twenty years from now there may be a reappraisal of the Council. Twenty years from now there may be a more sober assessment of Vatican II's strengths and weaknesses.

But part of the dynamic for that reappraisal and more sober assessment will be the energy expended by the old guys in the AUSCP who cherished and promoted what Vatican II did.

Some of the strongest critics of the AUSCP and their Vatican II-orientation were youngsters or not even born when the Council took place.

Some of the strongest critics of Vatican II create a "straw list" of items which they say  Vatican II said, and then use their list to ridicule AUSCP's efforts to promote the Council's directions and spirit.

Perhaps the major reason that most of the AUSCP members are 70 or older is that these men remember the days before the Council.

Vatican II Changes

Without denying that there were abuses and misdirection in the immediate wake of the Council, the majority of the AUSCP members cherish the many good results produced by Vatican II's aggiornamento, resourcement, and rapprochment.

A partial list of the happy results of Vatican II includes:

1) greater participation of the people in the liturgy

2) restored awareness that the Holy Spirit works in all the people of God

3) biblical literacy among the laity

4) restoration of permanent diaconate

5) return of the Rite of Christian Initiation

6) renewed emphasis on Church as communio/koinonia (eucharistic ecclesiology)

7) retrieval of the theology of the common priesthood

8) hospitable recognition of other Christians

9) reaching out to the world as friend rather than enemy

10) re-evaluation of marriage as partnership of life and love rather than simply legal contract

11) re-examination of collegiality of episcopacy

12) recognition of the right to religious freedom

The list could go on.

Members of the AUSCP remember what it was like before. They are eager (perhaps anxious) to see maintenance of these changes and the promotion of the directions set by the Council.

They have reason to be concerned.

Vatican II called for an updating of the liturgy, a simplification of the rites, the elimination of accretions, the restoration of elements that were lost. Papal permission to use the pre-Vatican II Mass (Tridentine Rite) which the bishops voted to change is counter to the Council's directives.

Vatican II acknowledged the role of the bishop in his diocese and the role of bishops' conferences when it comes to liturgy and the vernacular. Curial rejection of the US Bishops' translation and their insistence on a new Roman Missal translation that is more than awkward counters the Council's direction.

Vatican II returned to the concept of episcopal collegiality. The idea of a Bishops' Synod with an agenda prepared by the Curia runs counter to the collegial spirit envisioned by the Council.

Vatican II urged ongoing dialogue with members of Christian denominations and with other religions. The current official dialogue barely exists and falls far short of the direction set by the Council.

Experience

Most members of the AUSCP lived in the pre-Vatican II church. They experienced both the excitement and the confusion that came as the Council's aftermath. They struggled with the changes, sometimes changes they did not at first want or understand. But they lived it.

For most of the ASUSCP members Vatican II was a gift and they are eager to hand it on to future generations. They do not want the Church to go back to the way it was.  They know what it was like. They see the value in what we have in the Vatican II tradition.

It takes a long time for the deliberations of a Council to be reviewed, a long time for its decisions to be accepted.

The AUSCP simply wants to keep the vision alive.

The blogger critical of the AUSCP, of its aged members and their agenda, noted that more and more of the faithful are not buying the concern about Vatican II as proposed by the Association.

That may be true. But the AUSCP believes that Vatican II, as Pope John put it, "rises in the Church like daybreak, a forerunner of a most splendid light. It is now only dawn."

The AUSCP believes that there must be among all of us (clergy and laity) what Pope John asked of the bishops in council: "serenity of mind, brotherly concord, moderation in proposals, dignity in discussion, and wisdom of deliberation."

The AUSCP believes that the Council's documents "have lost nothing of their brilliance," as Pope John Paul II said in 2001. "They need to be read correctly, to be widely known and taken to heart as important and normative tests of the magisterium, within the Church's tradition."

The Holy Spirit, fifty years ago, gave the Church a sense of direction in an ecumenical council, in which the college of bishops has "supreme and full authority over the universal Church" (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 883).

The membership of the AUSCP may be a fading one, but the importance of Vatican II is not.

Association of Priests To Meet in June

The Association of United States Catholic Priests (AUSCP) will hold its second annual national assembly, June 24-27, 2013, in Seattle, WA.

The association began in August of 2011, and held its first national conference in Florida in June of 2012. About 240 priests from around the country attended that meeting. A similar number is expected to gather in Seattle. Total membership is around 900; some 45 Cincinnati priests are members.

Eager to support the direction and reforms of the Second Vatican Council the AUSCP has chosen "Lumen Gentium: God's Pilgrim People" as the theme for the 2013 assembly. (Last year's theme focused on Vatican II's document on the liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium.)

The format for this year's meetings is similar to last year's: keynote talks, discussions, consideration of resolutions and voting for or against certain proposals.

Among the proposals offered by some members of the association for this year is a  resolution to urge the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to use their power and authority to resolve the pastoral and sacramental challenges rising from an increase in the number of Catholics and a decline in the number of priests.

The assembly will also consider whether to ask the Holy Father for permission to use the old (1974) Sacramentary prayers at Mass in light of the awkwardness that many priests find with the translation in today's Roman Missal.

One resolution for consideration and vote supports a comprehensive plan for improved, more effective evangelization.

Some issues will be more controversial, such as the ordination of women to the diaconate, a request for permission to use general absolution more frequently, ordination of women and married men to the priesthood, and wider lay/clergy consultation in the selection of bishops.

A slate of 15 proposals will likely take place at the meeting, but if last year's discussions are indicative not all proposals will pass.

The publication of the association's agenda has elicited criticism from some priests and laity across the country. One priest made a special point of noting that most of the AUSCP priests are 70 and older, implying that their gatherings to specially promote Vatican II initiatives would be short lived, and after their demise a more reasoned approach to Vatican II can be pursued.

Keynote speakers scheduled for the Seattle meeting are Father Patrick Brennan (a pastor), Catherine Clifford (a theologian), Robert Kaiser (a journalist who was an observer at Vatican II), Robert Mickens (a Vatican journalist), and James Coriden (a canon lawyer).

Additional information about the AUSCP is available at http://www.uscatholicpriests.org/

AUSCP Inaugural Convention

Two hundred and forty priests from 55 dioceses across the country gathered June 11-14, 2012, at St. Leo University, northeast of Tampa, Florida, for the first national meeting of the newly formed Association of United States Catholic Priests (AUSCP).

The focus of the meeting was "Vatican II Lives," a call to keep alive the vision and passion of the Council.

Key-note speakers were Dr. Richard Gaillardetz, president-elect of the Catholic Theological Society of America, and Father Anthony Ruff, OSB, teacher of liturgy and Gregorian Chant at St. John's University School of Theology.

The AUSCP was founded in August of 2011 when an organizing committee of 27 priests met and agreed that US Catholic priests need a common voice in their efforts to "celebrate and keep alive the visionary concepts of Vatican II."

Father David Cooper, one of the founding fathers and chairman of the AUSCP board, explained that the association is not positioning itself to be a controversial voice, but a collaborative one.

AUSCP is one of several associations of priests around the world, including Ireland, Austria, Australia, and the Philippines.

The convention began with  a session in which priests were invited to verbalize their "laments" about their ministry, their perception of the Church, their struggles with living the priestly vocation.

The intent was to spell out what a priest can control, what he can influence, and what are the facts of life he cannot change.

Their lamentations included recognition of a climate of fear, a distortion of Vatican II, the return of legalism and clericalism, the manner in which women are treated in the Church, stretching priests to the breaking point, struggles with the hierarchy, and loneliness.

The exercise served as a kind of release valve, a letting go of negative energy, recognizing that "mourning can move into kairos" as Psalm 42 implies.

Gaillardetz's key-note presentation described Vatican II as the construction of a new set of walls around the old Church. The old remains (continuity with the past is maintained) but the new construction enables the old to relate to the world of today.

He urged the AUSCP to insist on the "facticity" of the Council (Vatican II happened, and it was an ecumenical council), and at the same time to engage in "holy conversation" (avoid demonizing those who disagree).

In his key-note Ruff addressed the issue of the translation of the Roman Missal, noting that the responsibility of episcopal conferences for translating into the vernacular, as spelled out in Vatican II's Sacrosanctum Concilium, has been reclaimed by the Curia.

He believes that Liturgicam authenticam, the 2001 instruction from the Holy See calling for exact, word-for-word translation of the Latin, should be withdrawn. In effect an office in the Vatican is translating the Mass prayers in a language foreign to the people who are to pray them.

Three sessions of the conference were devoted to business: 1) approval of by-laws/constitution, 2) acceptance of the board of officers, and 3) consideration of several proposals.

Among the proposals passed by the assembly were a letter of support to the LCWR (the Leadership Conference of Women Religious), and the acceptance of all US bishops (retired and active) who apply for membership in the AUSCP.

The median age of the priests in attendance was about 70. Most consider themselves "Vatican II priests." One celebrated his 86th birthday during the convention. Among the younger clergy was a priest who had been ordained for one year; he assessed the association as a threat to the Church.

Retired Bishop Rembert Weakland, who led a workshop on liturgy, and  retired Bishop Tom Gumbleton were present.

Father Hans Bensdorf, a representative of the Austrian Priests Initiative, and Father Luis Alfonso Contono, from El Salvador and a representative of the COOPESA for priests, spoke briefly to the assembly and audited the sessions.

Other presenters were Cleveland diocesan priest Father Don Cozzens (author of several books, including The Changing Face of the Priesthood) and Father Peter Fink, SJ (author of Worship: Praying the Sacraments).

In a general assessment of the conference, a number of priests were vocal: this is an intelligent, pastoral and fun group... this has nourished my hope... I realize I am not alone... "thank you" to the leadership team... this was good "holy conversation"... we must go forward, not back to the 50s, not back to the 70s, but forward... Vatican II was a gift and it is our job to be faithful to the gift God has given us.

The next AUSCP national convention will be held June 17-20, 2013; location to be announced. 

Membership inquiries can be made at AUSCP, PO Box 263, Calumet City IL 60649, or online at www.uscatholicpriests.org. As of June, 2012, there were 650 members.