Catholic News Agency
December 10, 2007
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=11219
Washington DC, Dec 10, 2007 / 11:24 am (CNA).- A Harvard sociologist who was a major force in organizing the dissenting Catholic group Voice of the Faithful is now advising the presidential campaign of Democratic candidate Barack Obama.
Marshall Ganz helped start Voice of the Faithful, an organization devoted to "structural change" in the Church. It has called for changes in Catholic doctrine and practice, such as the addition of a married priesthood and the popular election of bishops.
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| Presidential candidate Barack Obama and advisor Marshall Ganz |
Ganz recruited one of his former graduate students, Aimee Caravich, into Voice of the Faithful to develop a training program for regional coordinators and affiliate leaders. In a letter to the organization's members, she wrote, "VOTF can rise to its feet and claim a piece of the power that the Catholic hierarchy currently holds. I am here to get that ball rolling."
Marshall Ganz is now a chief advisor to Obama, having designed and implemented "Camp Obama" training sessions in five states. The three-day sessions were for volunteers whose job is to create precinct-level grassroots political support.
In a Camp Obama website video, Ganz explains, "How we can develop our own stories of self so we can relate with voters on a deeper emotional level than just to transfer information."
Ganz, a former civil rights and labor organizer with figures like Cesar Chavez, also worked with the United Farm Workers.
Deal Hudson of InsideCatholic.com thinks Ganz's dissenting influence on Obama's campaign might be evident in the presidential candidate's address to the Call For Renewal Conference. In that speech, Obama suggested that Catholic teaching against birth control was a "more culturally specific" doctrine that "may be modified to accommodate modern life."
"Now that Clinton is sliding downward in the polls, and the Obama campaign is gaining ground, we may be hearing more of Obama's opinions on Catholic teaching," Hudson surmised.
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