By Ned McGrath | Director of Communications, Archdiocese of Detroit

Detroit’s former archbishop, Cardinal Maida, used to remind me of something when there appeared to be a conflict between and among Church groups. “It’s a big ballpark,” he would tell me. “People can be in left field, people can be in right field… but as long as they are within the foul lines, they’re with us and we can work with them.”

The American Catholic Council (ACC) is out of the ballpark. Far out. In the wake of their recent Detroit conference, which took place last weekend at Cobo Hall in Detroit, to much media attention, it might be illuminative to stay with the baseball analogy for a moment. (Seasonally appropriate, to be sure, in that there are many who consider baseball a form of organized religion.)

So you get to Comerica Park, only to find that for this particular Major League game the players can wear whatever they want to. Uniforms are optional. There are no limits on the number of players on the field. Anyone who wants to can pitch. Or, you find out that on Tuesdays and Thursdays the hitters get ten strikes instead of three. And the winning pitcher? Forget the rulebook and score keepers, that’ll be put up to a vote of everyone in the stands.

The ACC believes anybody and everybody -- ordained or not -- can vest for Mass or deliver the homily. The Lectionary is a suggestion, not a requirement. If your conscience says something is OK, then it’s OK. And Church teachings, the sacraments, even the sanctity of life can be put up to a vote.

There’s renewal and then there’s “revolution,” something one of the ACC speakers advocated. The organizers described their sessions as “dialogues.” “Diatribes” might be more accurate. The sad, end result was a lot of toxic theology put forth by people openly separated from the Church. Whatever that was at Cobo Hall last weekend, if it ever ends up in the record books, you can be sure there will be an asterisk after the entry.