Call To Action's goals are to change church disciplines and teachings in such areas as mandatory celibacy for priests, the male-only priesthood, the selection process for bishops and popes, and opposition to artificial contraception.
In 1971, Pope Paul VI wrote that the laity of the Catholic Church should "take up as their own proper task the renewal of the temporal order".
[1] In “Catholic Social Activism – Real or Rad/Chic?”, Father Andrew Greeley saw the old social- justice action in labor schools, worker priests, and community organizing that “mastered the politics of coalition building with the system.” [citation needed] On the other hand, the “new” Catholic action came out of the Berrigan brothers' experience during the Vietnam war and the peace movement, and was thus involved in confrontation and protest.
The congregation's prefect, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, wrote to Bishop Bruskewitz that his action "was properly taken within [his] competence as pastor of that diocese".
However, Cardinal Re's statement did include strongly worded doctrinal criticisms as well, even to the extent of saying that "to be a member of this association or to support it is irreconcilable with a coherent living of the Catholic faith".
[14] Yet the organization has continued with a wide range of activities including annual conferences and regional groups, and in 2013 it attempted to broaden its appeal under the tagline, "Inspire Catholics, Transform Church".