Catholic Laity Make Some Noise

CLAMOR Heard Loud and Clear

by Tom Gaspar
Massachusetts Catholic Inquisitor

While many Americans have been busy listening to the rhetoric spewing from the mouths of certain politicians as they prepare for the coming mid-term elections, other people have been doing some talking of there own. And what started as a grass roots effort in a small mid-Michigan town has exploded with a sound that's bound to be heard.

"We just got sick and tired of all the baloney from our current leaders," said James MacDermott, who prefers to be called Jimbo. "[My wife] Elaine and I finally decided that we don't know who to trust because the fact is that we can't trust any of them!"

It was their disgust of mistrust that led them to talk to their friends, neighbors, and many of the members of their parish, St. Patrick's in Shepherd, Michigan. "We decided that it was time for some common people with good Christian morals to be heard. We weren't sure how to do it, so we just started holding meetings and spreading the word," MacDermott recalls. "It's surprising how loud and clear a message can be when lots and lots of voices are simply saying the same thing. It turned into quite a 'clamor'," he says, smiling at his own pun.

Those town hall style meetings became more organized, more focused, and eventually the Catholic Lay Alliance of Morally Outraged Residents (CLAMOR) was born. The idea was that the complaining voices of the masses might cause a ruckus from time to time, but the organized, orchestrated cries of everyday citizens becomes a clamoring that cannot be ignored -- at least not by other citizens, which is MacDermott's true goal.

"We're preparing to march on Washington," states MacDermott in a nonchalant way that someone else might tell you they're going to the store. "But the fact of the matter is that we don't care if our current politicians listen to us or not. We're doing it for the publicity. We want the voters to hear us, not the politicians."

You see, the kind of change that CLAMOR is demanding is far more basic than trying to get lawmakers to correct their unethical ways. CLAMOR simply wants to change the lawmakers themselves. "We need to start over," says MacDermott. "We need all new people in government. Forget Democrats, Republicans, or whatever party... they're all corrupt and they all need to go." It's a radical message, but one that's being embraced by many. Chapters of the organization have sprung up all over the country and CLAMOR now boasts a strong, organized presence in over 35 states. "Our government is supposed to be a representative democracy, where regular people represent their neighbors. Congress today is full of career politicians who are so far removed from their constituents that they've become a modern-day nobility."

So why is it a lay Catholic organization? "Catholic means universal," explains MacDermott, "and the Roman Catholic Church is fundamentally a church of the oppressed. It is a church that very clearly stands for social justice. As far as we're concerned, replacing a corrupt, broken government certainly qualifies as a social justice issue." And so far, tens of thousands of Americans seem to agree; but whether that's enough remains to be seen.

Copyright 2006 by Brandon Jubar
All rights reserved.