What impact will the recently upheld, sweeping excommunications of a US group have?
This week it was announced the Vatican will uphold the excommunication of members of a US group called Call to Action. It was a move that stunned many, myself included. We don't tend to think of the church performing sweeping excommunications anymore. Wasn't that something they did back in the day, like during the great schism?
According to its website, Call to Action has about 25,000 members in the U.S. alone. The group's mission is to promote justice and equality. The church sees some of the group's efforts as 180 degrees from the Catholic way of life and beliefs.
Perhaps some of the opinions that flamed the fire included the call for women to be ordained and for bishops to be popularly elected.
This excommunication won't win the church a lot of fans but it does make a statement, that the church's stance on certain issues is solid.
Will these excommunications rock the church to its foundations? Probably not. Will is cause people to be curious about these groups? Probably. Did the church do the right thing? Come back in 100 years to see what effect it had.
