After Vatican II, Dearden had been working for a National Pastoral Council to bring bishops, priests, religious, and lay people together to examine their "shared responsibility" on civic issues in the life of the Church. He had made several exploratory steps towards this as president of the NCCB/USCCB but this had all been frustrated by a 1973 letter to the bishops from the Vatican expressing concern over events in the Church within America and the Netherlands that ordered plans for national councils to be placed on hold.