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How You Can Become Involved
Join our circle of advisors and representatives as an individual or as a representative of your reform group
"Alone, the pope cannot change the world. A pope for the people must have a people for the pope. This initiative gives us a means of being with Pope Francis."
Gaston Roberge, SJ, India
Worldwide Organizations
See the worldwide organizations who are speaking out to Pope Francis about the reform of our Church.
Petitions that have been signed over the years supporting similar reforms.
Catholic Church Reform Int'l - a Global Network of more than a hundred reform groups and individuals from 65 countries. If you would like to collaborate with us to continue on the path set by Vatican II, you have come to the right place. Welcome!
If there is to be any reform of any kind in the Catholic Church, it must begin with the people having a voice.
The need has never been greater than it is at this moment in time for the People of God to unite our voices so as to be strong enough to be heard in our Church. Our special advisor, Sr. Joan Chittister, reminds us: "Until we raise a common voice we will not only not be heard, we will not even be listened to in the light of larger issues and larger groups, all clamoring for attention."
Particular Councils: a resource rarely used in Australia
(Published in The Swag, Vol. 25, No. 3, Spring 2017, pp. 9-11)
This is the first of a series of articles looking at particular councils or synods. It is a general examination of their origins, characteristics and capacity. Others will examine the seven particular councils, provincial and plenary, which have been held in Australia since 1844, as well as the preparations for the 2020 Australian Plenary Council, and what that council might have on its agenda.
Towards a synodal church
In its 1965 Decree on the Bishops’ Pastoral Office in the Church (Christus Dominus) the Second Vatican Council declared that it “earnestly desires that the venerable institution of synods and councils flourish with new vigour” (n. 36).
Aware that synods had waned significantly, the Council wanted to reverse that lapse. More recently, Pope Francis, echoing the Council, has said that “the world in which we live ... demands that the Church strengthen cooperation in all areas of her mission, and it is precisely the path of synodality which God expects of the Church in the third millennium. A synodal church is like a standard lifted up among the nations” (Address to Synod of Bishops, 17 October 2016). But transitioning to a synodal church will largely depend on bishops to take up the challenge. This may be hard for some, as “synodality does not mean some of the bishops some of the time, but all the Church all of the time” (Archbishop Coleridge, Knox Address, 2015).
Read more: Particular Councils: a resource rarely used in Australia
Questions and Answers - Feminist Voices 1
1. Virginia Saldanha (India/Right) on Need of Dialogue between Asian Bishops and Laity for Renewing Asian Churches including FABC.
2. Martha Heizer (Austria/Middle) on The Urgent Agendas of "International Movement of We Are Church" for Church Reform as of Today.
3. Kochurani Abraham (India/Left) on "Bold for Change" in Addressing Misogyny and Patriarchal Culture in Asia.
Asian Theology Forum
31 July 2017
Yogyakarta, Indonesia