Reply #11: The Mission Statement is broadly inclusive.

[Cuban_Liberal]

"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."

The mission statement clearly welcomes discussions about our beliefs, traditions, liturgies, practices and other Church-related issues, and I'm not at all convinced that tinkering with the verbiage will result in a host of new group members. As I stated in my earlier post, I suspect that even those of us here already likely hold a broad range of opinions on many pertinent issues, and I don't believe that 'conservative' is a proper characterization of this group at all. I offer my own view on contraception as an example: I support fact-based sex and STD/HIV education, and also support contraceptive education and availability; I'm quite sure that others here do not, and I respect their POV even if I do not agree with it. The issue has simply not come up for discussion; in no way, however, would the Mission Statement preclude such a discussion, should someone want to start one.
:shrug:


As for the size of the group, there are many factors involved: interest, donor status, amount of time one is able to be at DU, etc.; further, while there may actually be many Catholics at DU, sheer number is no indication of how many come here to discuss the Church. Like most Baptists, Jews, Muslims, etc., who come here, their greatest (if not sole) interest in DU is likely discussing politics, and not religion. Finally, I can see this forum becoming unwieldy and unruly if there is not some threshold established for what is and is not acceptable subject matter; it makes little sense to me to open up a Catholic and Orthodox Christian group to active participation by those whose major purpose is quite likely to be a wholesale change to the very nature, structure and policies of the Churches themselves.

:hi: