This weekend an estimated 3,000 Catholics flocked to Milwaukee for Call to Action's 29th annual conference: "Religion, Money, Politics: What's God got to do with it?" The conference was held Friday through Sunday at the Midwest Airlines Center, 400 W. Wisconsin Ave., and the Milwaukee Hyatt, 333 W. Kilbourn Ave.

Call to Action is a Chicago-based national organization of more than 25,000 Catholics with the mission of working for reform in the Church in the tradition of the 1976 Call to Action Conference of the U.S. Bishops, which examined the Vatican II reforms passed a decade earlier.

This year's events included seminars, presentations on a wide range of topics, prayer sessions and performances.

Joann Kriege, a 1960 Marquette alumna and attendee, said the substance of the conference was excellent.

"It's been addressing a smorgasbord of issues," said Kriege, 70, of Hancock, Mich. "I think it's addressing some of the things on people's minds."

A wide range of presentation topics were available, from political issues such as sweatshops and social security to Church issues such as the sex abuse scandals and homosexuality.

"They have very engaging speakers," said attendee Pat Wilder, 62, of Lincolnshire, Ill. "It just feels so good to be with people who are working to make changes in this world, to make things better."

Wilder said she has been coming to the conference for five years, although she left the Catholic Church many years ago and is now a member of the Unity Church. She said the conference was very encouraging and reassuring.

Conference attendees were overwhelmingly female and older, but there were events geared specifically toward younger conference-goers.

One such event was "Spirituality and Activism from a Next Generation Perspective" where a circle of people discussed how they could build trust and a community and considered how an activist can bring spirituality into their work.

"There's something inside humans… that moves them to action," said Daniel Quintana, 20, from Pecos, Texas, after the talk.

Quintana, a sophomore at the University of Rochester, N.Y., said this was his first time at the conference and it was worth the trip.

"There's different issues and I'm trying to go around and see them all," Quintana said. "It's really good."

One presentation focused on the push for women to be ordained into the priesthood.

"I do this with hope that I know the church will change," said presenter Joy Barnes, executive director of the Women's Ordination Conference, an organization which works for the ordination of women in the Catholic Church based in Fairfax, Va. "If we start creating the structures where we don't have this hierarchy between the priests and the laity… then we can have something new and inclusive."

Another talk, "White Privilege: Getting In On the Conversation," given by Eddie Moore Jr., director of intercultural life at Central College in Pella, Iowa, examined how to address white privilege in society.

"I agree with what he's talking about," said Kevin Horan-Bussey, 41, of Chicago. "It's too easy to assume that everyone's experiences are the same as ours."

Retired missionary Gerald Wilmsen, 71, from Couderay, Wis., said people should have started talking about these racial issues 50 years ago.

"This is such a great opportunity to have someone talk to us," Wilmsen said.

There was also an exhibition hall, featuring such booths as Equal Exchange, Handwork of India, Latin American Committee of the Diocese of Phoenix and many others.

"I think it's a great way to network and be in dialogue with other people who are gathered around the issues in our church today," said Ellen Harms, 24, of Cleveland, as she walked around the exhibition hall.