Gathering on Catholic ‘Future’ Invites Liberals and Dissidents Only

WASHINGTON, July 14, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The guest list of a private conference of senior Catholic leaders gathered to discuss “The Church in America: The Way Forward in the 21st Century” reads like a Who’s Who of liberal dissidents, reports a July 11 e-Letter from Deal Hudson, editor of Crisis magazine.  Hudson, who is considered a leading Catholic contact for the Bush White House, found out about the event only after the fact—thanks to a report in the July 11 Boston Globe. Not a single orthodox representative was invited, Hudson relates, noting that papal biographer George Weigel, First Things editor Fr. Richard J. Neuhaus, leading Catholic thinker Michael Novak, and others were left off the guest list. Even Fr. David O’Connell, the orthodox president of Catholic University in Washington, was excluded.  “When the pope called on bishops to crack down on dissent after the sex abuse scandal, I doubt this is what he had in mind,” Hudson writes, referring to the exclusiveness and secrecy of the heterodox gathering, which ironically took place at the John Paul II Cultural Center.  For more details:  https://www.crisismagazine.com