ACTA getting busy in Arundel and Brighton. Wakey wakey!

A friend of mine agreed to attend this ACTA meeting and took brief notes. I have abbreviated the full names to initials. ACTA officially stands for "A Call to Action". But in reality it stands for, "A Call to Apostasize".

Here is a brief report on the ACTA A@B meeting held at Our Lady of Ransom, Eastbourne on January 29th 2014. Present 25 people, including 2 diocesan priests.

(This was a very low-key meeting - A@B ACTA  maintain they are only interested  in collaborative ministry - nothing more).

BP, national delegate for A@B, updated the meeting on what is happening nationally.    They had produced a draft constitution, a document sent to the Bishops Conference, and were waiting a reply.   An acknowledgement had been received from Vincent Nicolls.   There were 18 diocesan groups.   Membership of ACTA is membership of local groups    (So if you go to a meeting and give your name, you automatically become a member and receive e-mail updates).   Next National Conference, 25th October 2014, Liverpool.

Discussion under chairmanship of MO. He referred to the origins of ACTA - the letter sent to the Tablet in June 2012, and the follow up meeting at Heythrop College where 350 people turned up.  Said the A@B group had had a meeting with Bishop Kieran, who said they had "every right to form groups and have meetings."     He referred to the Bishops' 1993 book "The Sign We Give" which refers to the importance of collaborative ministry.    Said ACTA had no connection with the American one - he understood the name come via the Tablet letter, which had been headed "A Call to Action". 

Asked about further aims, dissatisfaction with the new translation of the Mass was mentioned but not pursued.   Asked about "developing a theology of sexuality" (mentioned in the Tablet letter)   said that wasn't the aim of A@B ACTA.   (Slightly shocked that this should be raised, I thought.   They quickly distributed a leaflet which gave alternative groups which pursued aims like this).

The final part of the meeting was to accept the proposal in the agenda "That ACTAA@B makes the promoting of collaborative ministry in parishes of the diocese the main focus of its programme"  There were several amendments, but since there were no facilities to see written proposals, it was agreed to e-mail these and ask members to vote.

Next meeting, March 25th Horsham.   (There are two other chairmen, PM (Horsham) and JF (Cobham).  

End of the meeting.

For a very good precis of ACTA's deeper aims I recommend you look at Fr Eddie Tomlinson's and Fr Ray Blake's blogs on this topic.

For my part - I wish fellow Catholics would realise that the Catholic Church is NOT a democracy. That is not what Our Lord intended. As Cardinal Ratzinger used the say - "Truth is not determined by the majority vote". The Truth is the Truth even if 95% don't believe it. The gate is narrow to heaven - it isn't a picnic. We have to earn our salvation. ACTA want to remove all the 'hard' teachings and bring it 'in line' with all the other protestant denominations. Catholics wake up!

Here is a link to the ACTA March newsletter - do have a look!

http://www.acalltoaction.org.uk/documents/doc_download/110-march-2014-newsletterhttp://www.acalltoaction.org.uk/documents/doc_download/110-march-2014-newsletter