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	Catholic Events Split on Doctrine By Niraj Warikoo Detroit Free Press June 12, 2011 http://www.freep.com/article/20110612/NEWS05/106120516/Catholic-events-split-doctrine?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|s Conservative Catholics blasted liberals and defended their church's leadership Saturday at a conference in Livonia that was a stark contrast to a separate conference of reform Catholics being held at the same time in Detroit. Endorsed by the Archdiocese of Detroit, the Call to Holiness conference drew more than 600 Catholics to Saturday's daytime events, many of them concerned about the conference being held at Cobo Center in Detroit by the liberal American Catholic Council. "They want a moral code that's more flexible," Catholic radio host Al Kresta of Ann Arbor said Saturday in a talk that drew applause at Burton Manor. "What they say is the cure ... is the disease. This is exactly what has emptied the seminaries ... the pews." Both sides call themselves Catholics, but they have clashing ideas about the church's path in the 21st Century. The liberal conference at Cobo favors discussion about having female, gay or married priests and wants parishioners to have more say in decisions. They also want more of an emphasis on social justice issues rather than issues like contraception or abortion. The debate comes at a time when many Catholics in the U.S. are leaving the church --1 in 3 Americans raised Catholic has abandoned the faith, according to a Pew survey. The American Catholic Council event is drawing about 2,000 Catholics from around the world who are upset with the current leadership of the church. They held the conference on the 35th anniversary of a Detroit conference called Call To Action, led by the late Cardinal John Dearden, the former archbishop of Detroit, whom liberals considered a fellow progressive. But unlike that conference, this one is not endorsed by the archdiocese; it warned Catholics to stay away. Priests or deacons who attend a mass set for today in Cobo risk being defrocked, Archbishop of Detroit Allen Vigneron has said. At the heart of the debate between the conferences is who has authority among Catholics. Traditionalists and conservatives at Saturday's conference noted that the pope and bishops are divinely sanctioned and must be obeyed, while liberals say that regular people should have more say in church decision making. For example, they say parishes should be consulted before bishops make decisions on where to assign pastors. But attacking the authority of church leadership would lead to the unraveling of Catholicism and take away what makes it unique, said Christopher Kolomjec, 43, of Grosse Pointe Farms, who attended the Call to Holiness conference. The three-day event was expected to draw about 1,000 people. Though sympathetic to the Catholics at the Detroit conference, he said they were misguided. "Our conference proves its legitimacy because it is loyal to the Archdiocese of Detroit and the pope," he said. "We are united with our bishops and with Rome. Once you lose that, you can't claim to be Catholic. That's what distinguishes us."
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