Guidelines for local communities to prepare for the 2024 Synod
We have received these guidelines from the Synod office in Rome that will help lead members of local dioceses, parishes, and Small Christian Communities (SCCs) through the process of setting up synodal gatherings to call on the Spirit to open our minds and hearts as we share the important issues that we believe will help transform the Church into the kind of community that Jesus would want in today’s world. Click here to read these guidelines.
Start a synod of your own or join us to participate in one
It is incumbent on all of us to ensure that the issues that deeply concern us will be included in the working document for the 2024 Synod. We can no longer just talk about needed change in our Church. We now have the opportunity to do something about it. To prepare for this, we encourage you to call a few people together and begin small synodal gatherings of your own. There are many things you can accomplish by bringing people together.
Speaking of the 2023 Synod report, undersecretary Sister Nathalie Becquart, XMCJ said: “The synthesis report creates a roadmap for discussion to take place around the world over the next eleven months. That report also has many concrete proposals and some of them can already be implemented. You don’t have to wait for change to come from Rome.” This statement coming directly from the Synod office is most encouraging. If we need not wait for Rome but can begin some aspects of the synod in our own communities, let’s not wait. It is as simple as calling a few people you know who’d be interested in seeing the Catholic Church brought into the modern world. Call on all kinds of people – active members of your parish, people who have long since given up on the Church and dropped out, members of other religious denominations, call on everyone.
Use your time gathered with others to discern (1) what you can implement in your own community and begin making plans; (2) what are the issues that you feel deeply about that you want to have included in the working document and be discussed at the 2024 Synod.
Click here for a few guiding steps to help you begin your own small synodal gathering. To prepare, here is the English translation of The 41-page synthesis report. Following the guidelines offered from the Synod office, you may want to focus on key parts of this report or do so in more than one session. Or if you prefer, here is a summary of the document that came from the 2023 Synod. Spread the word that you are bringing a small group together. Many are unaware that a consequential synod has even taken place. Refer often to our CCRI website www.CatholicChurchReformIntl.org to stay up on Synod news and events.
If you’re unable to find or begin your own synodal gathering, join CCRI to participate
Beginning the first of the year, CCRI will be facilitating monthly gatherings for all who have no other way to participate. These will be held at the following times:
• the 1st Saturday of every month beginning on January 6, 2024
• the 2nd Friday of every month beginning on January 12, 2024
• the second Saturday of every month beginning on January 13, 2024
• the third Wednesday of every month beginning on January 17, 2024
To find the times for you in your locale, click on our universal calendar now: https://spiritunbounded.org/calendar. Save this in a special place so you can access this at any time and learn what is going on worldwide and how and when to join. This calendar will show you the time of the meeting in your own time zone.
Your donations are most appreciated
YOUR GIFT – IN ANY AMOUNT – IS PRICELESS
When you make a donation to support our cause, you join with others who are investing in restoring our Church to what Jesus intended. If you are part of the movement to stop contributing to your local parish and/or diocese, you may want to take advantage of the end-of-year tax deductions by contributing to CCRI in its stead. The dollars we receive are used to run our programs and to reach a broad spectrum of the People of God. We are focused on reaching out to the Faithful, reform activists, young adults as well as those who feel abandoned by the Church, to mention just a few. Your personal contributions in offering your suggestions and your donations are most appreciated.
To remain silent is to be complicit with our Church as it is now. To remain silent could cause a repeat of Vatican II – where dramatic change occurred and was silenced by clericalism, by bishops who needed to have full authority. Let’s all do our part to step out of the pews, to come together and speak. But none of us can do this alone. We need to join our voices together and be a synodal Church to stay abreast of what is happening with each stage of the Synod from now through 2024. Becoming a synodal Church will only happen if we, the People of God, stay involved in the process.
On behalf of the CCRI steering committee,
Rene Reid
CCRI Director