CCRI’s Recent Achievements
- Formation of online Small Christian Communities for Young Adult Seekers (link to this place on our website)
- Formation of a Global Continental Synod Board to ensure that a balanced representation of the People of God is included in the seven continental synods (link to the report)
- Creation of a Global Synodal Gathering representing 21 different regions of the world
- Working with the Wijngaards Institute to support their proposed Constitution for the Catholic Church (link to this)
- Supported the People of God to get involved in their diocesan synodal gatherings and make their voices heard:
- Why people are insisting that their voices be heard at the Synod – Catholic Church Reform International (catholicchurchreformintl.org)
- Let’s take advantage of the narrow window of opportunity Pope Francis has given us – Catholic Church Reform International (catholicchurchreformintl.org)
- Engaging the people in Pope Francis synods – Petitions.net
- Facilitated numerous small synodal gatherings around the world via Zoom to listen to one another, share their insights into what is needed in the Church today, and supported each group to send in a report to the Synod Office:
- Creation of The People Speak Out website to give the People of God a place to voice their views and post their reports sent to the Synod Office (link to www.ThePeopleSpeakOut.org)
- Guiding the People how to begin their own Synod (How do we prepare for a synodal process? SQ+ cotart with the documents of Vatican II – Catholic Church Reform International (catholicchurchreformintl.org)
- Standing with the LGBTQ+ community as they were formally denounced (Press Release – Catholic Church Reform International (catholicchurchreformintl.org)
- Standing with the victims of sexual abuse
- Working with Voices of Faith in supporting a call for transparency in more women being appointed to leadership positions in the Curia:
- Standing with other reform organizations in the support of Women and Young People having a voice in the Church:
CCRI’s Early Achievements
- On June 20th, 2013 Catholic Church Reform launched our website forming a worldwide network of reform-minded individuals and organizations.
- A September 4, 2013 teleconference call where 60 plus individuals agreed that joining together had value, were able to concur on a primary issue that all shared, and nominated global representatives to serve on the letter drafting committee.
- A letter for Pope Francis’ October 2013 meeting was drafted, underwent several revisions in a discernment process, then posted for feedback from both individuals and reform group representatives, and ultimately signed by over a hundred church organizations and over 6000 individuals.
- Press conferences were held on September 25, 2013 in cities around the world. Press releases appeared in countless global newspapers both secular and Catholic. Some representatives of organizations were interviewed on radio and TV, and several online and paper news articles reported on this worldwide initiative.
- Father Lombardi reported that a frequently discussed topic at the October meeting was “concern for the role of the laity in the Church and the world.” Based on this together with the announcement of the Synod being called next October to discuss families, we believe our letter to the pope is helping trigger the pope’s actions. It appears we were heard.
- Co-sponsoring with Catholic Organizations for Renewal a revision of the questionnaire released by the synod of bishops, Vatican survey on family life, in preparation for the Extraordinary Synod of bishops scheduled in October 2014. Sixteen thousand people completed the U.S. survey.
- A letter to Bishops was mailed to the office of every bishop in the United States, November 2013.
- A letter for Pope Francis’ December 2013 meeting was hand-delivered to the Pope.
- A letter for Pope Francis’ February 2014 meeting was delivered to the Pope.
- A press release was sent out February 2014 expressing our disappointment at so few laity being apppointed to the Pontifical Council for the Laity and those who were appear to hold pre-Vatican II views.
- A letter to the Secretariat General of the Synod of Bishops requesting, in a spirit of openness and transparency, that they make public all reports on the Vatican Survey taken by the faithful was sent February 2014.
- Letter from Sean Patrick Cardinal O’Malley’s Office acknowledging appreciation for the time and effort we’ve given to preparing the documents for the February meeting of Pope Francis with his Council.
- An event in Rome, Forum on the Family – LIstening to the Faithful, scheduled for Oct. 2 and 3, 2014 just prior to the start of the Extraordinary Synod called by Pope Francis.