Thomas P. Sweetser, S.J.
Liberal and Conservative Catholics; Avenues of Reconciliation Liberal and èonservative Catholics are becoming more polarized than in the past, gathering around favorite styles of worship or communities of beUevers. What common ground can bring them together?
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The proceedings of the 1975 National Federation of Priests' Councils Convention contain this "Note of Explanation": "A Jack of time prevented the House of Delegates from completing this section of its working paper on the polarization between liberal and conservative Catholics. Unlike the other groups, whose assigned topics permitted them to have a more direct focus on their assigned topics, the group dealing with liberal! conservative division worked extensively on the more fundamental issue of reconciliation, the roots of division and the processes of healing." The "Note of Explanation" goes on to say that the delegates decide to set up a task force to deal with this area of reconciliation du ring the year following the convention. lt was agreed that this was the best way to handle so difficult a subject, which required more time than the few days of the convention. Unfortunately, what was !ost in this decision was the results of the long hours the thirty members of the focus group devoted to trying to formulate a document on how liberal and conservative Catholics might be reconciled. This article will attempt to present sorne of the insights of that focus group, 151