Cardinal Marx Letter has opened up a new awakening for the People of God

Catholic Church Reform International (CCRI), acknowledges Cardinal Reinhard Marx for his courageous effort "to send a personal signal for a new beginning, for a new awakening of the Church, not only in Germany but throughout the world. By his letter of resignation, he is saying that it is wrong to simply link the clergy sex abuse scandal on the past thereby 'burying' what happened." Francis has rejected the cardinal's resignation and has asked him to continue with his current work. That includes his significant work with the Synodal Path.

Cardinal Marx's resignation was about the urgency of a radical reform of the Church calling on the People of God to assume far greater responsibility for our Church. "It is important to me," the Cardinal said, "to share the responsibility for the catastrophe of the sexual abuse by Church officials over the past decades. My impression is that we are at a 'dead end' which, and this is my paschal hope, also has the potential of becoming a 'turning point'."

It will be a turning point only if the Cardinal has the backing of masses of the People of God. "This could be the catalyst for the emergence of a new church founded on Gospel values that is truly inclusive, transparent, and participatory of all," said Christina Reymer, a member of the Strategy Team of Catholic Church Reform Int'l from New Zealand.

What can we as the People of God do?

Pope Francis is calling for a synodal Church, that is, the People of God walking together with the bishops. He said it must stem from a “bottom-up” process that begins in small communities and in parishes. "Thus the three year 'Synodal Process' does not wait for instructions from the Vatican and the local bishop’s decrees from above, but starts from below."Francis has called for there to be diocesan synods throughout every diocese in the world this October - only four months from now. "Let us listen to Francis and not wait for our bishops to call these synods," said Rene Reid, CCRI director. "The time is now for us to contact our bishops and, whether or not he intends to call a diocesan synod, inform him that we, the People of God, intend to respond to Francis and call for assemblies to discern the forward movement of our Church."

Conferences of Bishops must now welcome laity as equals

Fr Joe Healey, a CCRI Strategy Team member from Nairobi, Kenya suggests: "Let us also encourage and challenge the bishops and other Catholic Church leaders who are waiting and not responding to the pope's call to begin this first step in the synodal process." It would be an essential move that episcopal conferences (made up only of bishops) be replaced by ecclesial conferences - with bishops and the people all having an equal voice.

We the People of God are being called by our pope to rise up and initiate the next steps. Let us hear the call of the Spirit and begin now organizing in our parishes, our dioceses, and in our organizations!

INTERNATIONAL REFORM NETWORK SUPPORTS LGBT+ COMMUNITY IN WAKE OF VATICAN DENOUNCING CHURCH BLESSINGS FOR SAME SEX COUPLES

19 March 2021

Catholic Church Reform International (CCRI), joins with the outrage of millions of people from around the world disgusted by the Vatican's recent statement forbidding Church blessings for same-sex couples. Together with We Are Church Int’l, Future Church, and numerous Catholic bishops from around the world we, too, support all movements within the Church to continue blessing same sex relationships. The statement released by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith saying that the church cannot bless gay unions is based on an outdated church position that they are “not ordered to the Creator’s plan.” What is worse, the document said the pope was “informed” and “assented” to its publication. After the welcoming outreach of Pope Francis regarding the pastoral care of LGBT+ persons and his support of civil unions, we at CCRI agree with America magazine journalist Gerard O’Connell that it is significant that the document used such a tentative phrase in lieu of the more usual language of “approved” and “ordered its publication.” Pope Francis, we know you did not order the publication of this document. You cannot remain silent on this issue. You must come out publicly and state your position on this matter or what you fear most, a schism in the Church, will be inevitable. “For decades now the Church has been losing credibility with her Faithful, but this statement destroys any authority the Church has left over the people,” says Rene Reid, CCRI director. “No condemnatory pronouncement from the Vatican can stop the Spirit’s movement of our Church from blessing all of God’s people.”

CCRI Contact:  Ms Rene Reid, director

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Telephone: +775-825-9196 off; +775-772-1210 cell

Catholic Church Reform Int'l recently released a survey inviting people globally to describe their experience of Covid-19 and freely share its effect on their experience of church, their place in the human family, and their hopes and dreams for our world. We were interested in knowing whether the experience of the lockdown had changed what is important to them and whether they intended to change anything about their life as they transitioned through the pandemic. Providentially, we find it encouraging that this is also the topic of Pope Francis's newest book: Let us Dream: the Path to a Better Future.

This broad initiative was in response to the Papal Exhortation on the Amazonian Synod, released in February 2020, just as the Corona virus pandemic began its global impact. Just as Francis immersed himself into the people and the culture they live in to understand the obstacles and opportunities they face, likewise, through this survey, we have attempted to do the same – really listening to the diversity of voices and seeking the Spirit-guided perspectives of the People of God. The survey was conducted from July to September 2020 in five languages (English, Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese) with responses from thirty countries spanning six continents. While we believe we speak for a broader group, when we refer to the People of God, we are primarily reflecting the views of the participants in this survey.

The summary result, which we dare to call A Peoples Exhortation, is a parallel effort to reflect an incarnate journey and to collect broad perspectives with many points of connectedness. For centuries, the Catholic Church has tried to make everyone sing one note, but we believe beautiful harmony can be made from all the different notes.

Synod as we would like for it to look

Synod as it has always looked in the past

At this special time of our liturgical year we are urging you to take these action steps to help move our church forward

If moving our church forward is left up to bishops, it would have happened by now. It is time for us as the People of God to stop waiting for this and assume responsibility ourselves. Specifically, what is within our power to do?

Take the survey to give your input into the 2022 Peoples Synod

First, and foremost, Pope Francis has called for another synod in October 2022. The theme is to be a synod on creating synodality in our church. We share Pope Francis’s understanding that the term is generally understood to represent a process of discernment, with the aid of the Holy Spirit, involving bishops, priests, religious, and lay Catholics, each according to the gifts and charisms of their vocation. If we don't make our voices heard, our concern is the bishops will go on doing things as they've always done them - on their own with little or no involvement of they laity. We encourage you to take the survey put out by a group of Austrians getting more voices of the people included in the Lineamenta, which is the preparatory document to determine the topics to be discussed at this gathering and how it will be structure. We want to see lay people, especially woman and young adults to be included as participants and voting members. The survey is in both German and English. Here is the link in English: https://survey.zulehner.org/index.php/514332?lang=en. To take the survey in another language, go there and use www.translate.google to convert the survey to your language. if you would, please help spread the word and pass this onto to your list of contacts.

The 2022 Synod must be expanded to include lay people, especially women and young people

Pope Francis has repeatedly said he wants us to be a "synodal" church. Understanding synod to mean “walking together,” it is our expectation that any coming synod will mean that lay people and especially women and young people are going to be walking together/side by side with the bishops and priests in this assembly.. But our fear is that they will be walking behind (two tiers, two rows, front and back) as has always been done in the past. In the Synodal Path assembly held in Germany this year, the bishops and lay people walked in side by side in a genuine synodal style. Pope Francis has called for a Synod in 2022. Our concern in advance is that this Synod will not be “the whole Church walking in a synodal way.”

At this moment, the Lineamenta (the preparatory document for the Synod) is already being drafted. Our concerns: Are lay people/women involved? Or is the document from the top down? Who is being consulted? Where is the distribution of the Lineamenta taking place? Is it going directly to a wider, inclusive group? In the old model, it went to the Conferences of Bishops, to the Pontifical University, and to the Union Superior Generals of men. But is it going to the Union Superior Generals of women or to International lay groups? Let us do all in our power to ensure that, finally, voting participants in this Synod will be more inclusive!

When the Lineamenta came out in Vatican documents on young people, there was no reference to the term “LGBT+” (lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgendered, etc.). Young people requested that it be included in the document. It is a reality in our world and in humanity. On the synod floor, there were many disputes over this issue. African bishops declared they had no gay people in their country. When young people were asked what is missing from our Vatican documents, they said reference to sexuality. Rome is frightened of addressing this issue. When Francis came out with his Apostolic exhortation, these topics were left out. It was felt they were too controversial.