All are invited to meet the delegates
August 14, 2024
In the spirit of synodality that Pope Francis has begun, the four international reform networks — Int’l Church Reform Network icrn.info, Spirit Unbounded spiritunbounded.org, and CCRI catholicchurchreformintl.org/, — invite you to join a special synodal gathering on August 14.
This is a rare chance for voting delegates to come together to freely interchange with each other ahead of their time in Rome. But it also offers a window of opportunity for delegates and the people they’re representing to meet informally online. We will be able to listen to them and to share with them and with each other our hopes for issues to be addressed in the coming Synod this October in Rome. This is a time for all of us to continue calling on the Spirit to guide us as a community on how best to discern the essential reforms we feel are needed in our Church today.
To find the times for you in your locale, click on August 14 on our Universal Calendar. You’ll see there are two times from which to choose. Select the one that works best for you in your locale. Since this is a global event, there will be a different group of delegates and participants in each meeting. We invite you to note this date in your calendars along with the access https://zoom.us/j/2429500175 and password spirit.
If you haven’t already read the working document Instrumentum laboris, we encourage you to delve into it for yourself. Familiarizing yourself with it and learning the general direction the 2024 Synod will provide a basis for delegates and the global reform community to interact in preparation for October. A further groundwork will be reading the brief summary of our work of all the online synods held globally during the early months of this year where hundreds of us met to explore the best direction for our Church in today’s world. The most significant feature of this report is that it is truly a consensus of cross-generational, cross-continental, and, of course, cross-cultural reflections of Catholics, both practicing and no longer practicing. In many ways, it is the epitome of what Pope Francis was seeking in his vision of our becoming a synodal Church. Cardinal Grech let us know he had read it and was impressed with the consensus reached across so many different cultures and generations.
As we anticipate the 2nd Assembly of the Synod this October, it is our hope that these gatherings will be valuable to the delegates, to all who participate, and helpful to the Synod process itself for our having offered this introduction where the People of God from all of the global reform networks have an opportunity to join with the delegates and with each other in an effort to reach some consensus regarding how best to address the issues being raised (and not being raised) in the Synod in Rome this October.
All delegates, clergy, and laity are welcome. To find the times for you in your locale, click on August 14 on our Universal Calendar. You’ll see there are two times from which to choose. Select the one that works best for you in your locale. Since this is a global event, there will be a different group of delegates and participants in each meeting. We invite you to note this date and time in your calendars.
More will follow once you’ve registered.
Schedule for September 2024
Schedule for September 2024 In planning how we as a global community of people who love our Church and want to see essential reforms come as a result of the Synod, we have agreed to host a series of geographical online gatherings where different regions will offer a presentation of what is happening by way of reform in their part of the world. We also agreed to host some thematic presentations giving the participants and opportunity to share in the dreams of how we hope our Church will eventually evolve. Here is the current list of the events scheduled with more to be added:
- Wednesday, September 11: Selection of Church Leadership
- Saturday, September 14: African Continental presentation
- Monday, September 16: North American Continental presentation
- Wednesday, September 18: Australasia Continental presentation
- Saturday, September 21: Catholic Women’s Council presentation
- Wednesday, September 25: Empowerment of Local Church Communities
- Saturday, September 28: ACTA National Conference with ICRN
To find the times in your locale, click on our Universal Calendar to check each of the above-named events. Still to be scheduled:
- European Continental presentation
- Latin America Continental presentation
- Events of physical activities occurring on the ground in Rome in October TBA
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. 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.
We have begun to genuinely join our voices together behaving as a synodal Church. Let us now stay abreast of what is happening with each stage of the Synod from now through 2024 and beyond. The real work of becoming a synodal Church is a process and it is crucial that we stay involved in the process. Thank you again to all who joined in any of our synodal gatherings. We will keep you informed of what is happening physically in Rome and virtually online as we continue to gather as a community.
On behalf of the international reform networks,
Rene Reid
CCRI director