Reply #3: To start,I think we need to change the group charter as well as its name..

[Princess Turandot]

The group charter currently reflects IMO the religious aspect of Catholicism almost exclusively. It talks abt discussion of liturgy & prayer, with no mention of discussions of progressive Catholic politics or social policy at all.This is it:

"The DU DU Catholic and Orthodox Christian Group is for those who wish to hold respectful discussions of Catholic and/or Orthodox Christian beliefs, share faith experiences, post prayer requests, discuss Catholic/Orthodox liturgies, traditions, saints, etc., talk about Catholic education or organizations (Knights of Columbus, Pax Christi, Legion of Mary, the Catholic Worker movement, etc.), or in any way positively explore issues having to do with the Roman Catholic Church or any rite of the Catholic or Orthodox Church.

Participants need not be practicing members of one of the Catholic or Orthodox rites but should be respectful of the beliefs and structures of the rites, especially in advocating any changes, such as allowing women to serve as priests.

This group is intended to be a venue for those who desire to discuss stated topics and is not intended as a forum to argue against Catholic/Orthodox belief or the Catholic/Orthodox Churches, members, or clergy."

DU is at its nature a progressive political forum, attracting people with an interest in politics, who might hopefully also be interested in discussing how their Catholic faith intersects with American policy.

I am not dismissing the religious discussions. It's nice to read threads abt saints & churches & see an occasional prayer or religious painting. But this should not exclusively be a liturgically oriented group if you want to attract more people.

Additionally, as Catholics, we have every right to discuss changes which we would hope to see in the church. The paragraph on this topic in the charter seems to me to discourage such discussions.

Also, I have previously expressed the opinion that the inclusion of the word 'Orthodox'in the title may be off-putting to people. It was intended I gather to reach out to Russian & other Orthodox participants, which seems to have attracted none. While that may be laudable, the word 'orthodox' is too loaded with unappealing meaning.(I refer to 'orthodox' as a synonym for 'fundamentalist', not as the Eastern Orthodox church.) I think that if a new person is interested in discussing their political perspective as a progressive Catholic, seeing the group's title and reading the charter, will send them away.

You can read the original thread I started here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=275x621

As you can see, DemBones2 who wrote the group charter, basically told me to go play with the Episcopalians if I didn't like her charter. The position that 'people know we are not conservative Catholics because we are on DU' doesn't hold water with me, when people are starting threads asking if 'your church has a pro-life group?' or ones extoling the right of pharmacists to not fill presciptions for birth control of any sort. Those types of threads just support the stereotypes held by other DU'ers of Catholics.

I will even go so far as to suggest that the abortion question not be discussed here at all, just as the Jewish group has sworn off their most contentious issue, the Israeli-Palestine debate. There are people here who believe abortion should be legal and there are people who want it banned. There is no constructive discussion to be had on this topic right now.

Just my 2 cents. I have a hard time believing that the low number of posters here are because there are so few Catholics at DU. This group needs a broader outreach.