European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 3, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                 fit Momin olb Ionta a. To fun in rom communion to won pin. The american Catholic Church it Atad to b9"mor human in its approach. Americas dissident catholics by Michael Hirsh associated Pressa s Marianne Johnson and her fiends approached the wooden Cabin in Pittsburgh where mass was to be celebrated they could hear a strumming gullah. So help me Ana Friend remarked if they Haw snakes in there we re leaving thai was intended As a joke but Johnson a Roma Catholic or All her 40 years laughed uneasily. This was no Minary mass. Ii was her introduction Toa Small denomination called the american Catholic Church. The Church is a California based offshoot of the old Catholic movie Nail that broke from the Vatican in 1870 Over the Issue of papal infallibility. Now it is spreading its version of the gospel for the first time in the Northeast a bastion of roman catholicism in America. The group s leaders Many of them former roman Catholic priests concede they May be deemed nothing in Oral than Manor irritant to Rome. Bui they say their theology a wend of conservative Catholic Liturgy and liberalized sexual mores could be just what s needed among the growing dissident roman Catholic population in the United Stales. Wet n More human in our approach says the Rev. E. Paul Rabito a former Benedictine Monk who joined the american catholics 10 years ago. Christ came with Good news not bad news. Ii it s so flood Why does everyone look so sad Why is everyone suffering so much we Hove i believe wha Many Many people Lor years and years have wanted in lha roman Catholic Cho  for some troubled roman catholics like Johnson the news that lha new Parish was holding its first service in a rented Lodge in Pittsburgh s North Park on Christmas Day was like an answer to a  i used to sit in Church end look around and i remember asking myself what am i doing Hare Felt i could t live up to their expectations she says. I practice birth control and they re against it-1 know i m not the Only person sitting in that Church who uses contraceptives. I mean what Are we doing there Are we pulling on a show i did t want to change regions. At the time i had just quil going to our Church. When i read about this it was like it was put there for me. The Liming was  the Church Liturgy while conducted in English is traditionally roman Catholic Down to the smoking incense and acolytes. Only a priest can administer the eucharist and the Liberal practice of allowing congregants to place the Host in their own Mouths is forbidden. But the group leaves the key questions of birth control divorce clerical celibacy and even premarital sex up to personal conscience and absolution is usually Given to the entire congregation at onco rather than in private. However. Iha Church opposes abortion and women in the Priesthood. In addition while ins Pope is respected As Bishop of Rome and firs among equals among All prelates his full authority is rejected. Eleanor Lamb 55. One of 15 members of the new Parish says she s Lyn a victim of the Catholic Church s Lough Siris against birth control and divorce. My Mother had six children she did t want she says. She always told us that she did t want us but she had to have us because the Church wanted it. Subsequently we were born and had miserable lives. She constantly said it was the Church s fault. I got married at 16 and vowed i could never be a part of the roman Catholic Church she and her husband Edward a methodist were anxious to join the american catholics because of the conservative Liturgy. The Catholic High Wass has always lifted me up she says. Some prelates such As Bishop James Malone of Youngstown Ohio past president of the National conference of Catholic Bishops have warned of a growing and dangerous disaffection of american catholics from the holy sea. According to a november 1685 new York times lbs news poll a majority of America s 50 million roman catholics favor permitting catholics to get divorced and marry someone else 73 percent the use of artificial contraception 68 Par contend letting Catholic priests marry 63 percent. The unrest has even spread into the upper reaches of the Church Hierarchy leading the Vatican to strip Liberal Seattle archbishop Raymond g. Hunthausen of much of his authority. Yel. Statistics show that while american roman catholics Ollen dissent the loudest they also attend mass More faithfully than their counterparts in Many Western european countries. It is this wellspring of Calote Al filiation As Well As the tensions that have partly eroded it. That american Catholic leaders would like to exploit. The biggest thing is the act that we Are still Catholic says Gerald j. Yeager a local native and newly ordained priest who has taken charge of the Pittsburgh Parish we re not protestant we make a pretence of being  thai View is sharply disputed by roman Catholic Church officials. Objectively speaking Filoman catholics do nol fulfil sunday May 3. 19b7 their sunday obligation by attending one of their liturgies says the Rev. Ronald Lengwin. A spokesman for the diocese of Pittsburgh. The american Catholic Church which says it has about 3.000 members mostly in California. Oregon and Washington considers i sell part of the 420,000 member old Catholic movement in America which originated in Isth Century Holland and Germany. The american group changed its name from the old catholics at Hie height of anti German sentiment during world War i rabble said in a Telephone interview from tile Church s Headquarters in Huntington Beach. Calif. Martin Marty a professor of modern christianity at the University of Chicago says the effect of groups like the american cathartic on malcontent de catholics in the mainstream win remain Small. To compares them to tiny Eastern rites groups to i1 ? i