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Catholic Church Reform International is a global network of committed Catholic organizations and individuals seeking a deeply-rooted reform of our Church. It is crucial that we all stay involved in the synodal process!
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World Day of Prayer – 4 April 2016
Celebrate the 22nd Annual World Day of Prayer for Women’s Ordination The World Day of Prayer is a concerted global action held annually on the feast of the Annunciation, to draw attention to women’s ordination into an inclusive and accountable Catholic Church. Every...
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Newsletter – 28 March 2016
March 28. 2016
To church reform organizational leaders:
At this time when Christians are being persecuted all around the world – in France, Belgium, the U.S., and now Pakistan, it is time for Christians to unite and stand together. If the Roman Catholic Church is to join in such an effort, it must set aside its superior attitude and recognize the genuineness of other Christian denominations and other world religions.
How can Church Reform ever come about?
Pope Francis has made it clear. He does not want to be a monarchical leader of the Church handing down orders from the top. Rather, he sees the Church structure as an upside down pyramid with the Faithful at the top feeding Spirit-guided reflections down to their bishops and pastors, who in turn, bring their concerns to the pope to request what is needed in their diocese. The challenge is that far too many bishops are not ready to relinquish their power and, consequently, are not inviting the Faithful into dialogue. If this process is to happen, it is up to the People of God to make it happen.
But the Resurrection is different.
I think that hope is more significant than faith and love. Hope is rooted in imagination, in the ability to grasp other possibilities, to conceive of other options. It helps us escape a monochrome, paranoid world. While we all have imagination, we need the artist to...
Jesus & ourselves, compare! He emptied himself, we peacock!
by Dr James Kottoor
Jesus is supposed to be the fulcrum on which everyone who calls him/herself to be a Christian must swing around all throughout his/her life, twenty-four hours a day. He is the role model. He is the leader, we the followers; he is the master, we the servants whom he has raised to the status of his friends. He became a slave, we in contrast become “Peacocks!”
Holy week is the time when Christians around the globe focus their attention solely, so to say, on the person of Jesus on the cross, especially his passion and death. How do we compare ourselves to him? “On bended knees!” could be the best pictorial description of that relationship of the generality of Christians towards Jesus, that is, the relationship of a creature to its creator for everything. When that relationship grows and matures, it may become specific and different for different people from the way they look upon him
From Peripheries he comes as outcast
The Homeless Jesus comes to the Vatican By ANDREA TORNIELLI in Vatican Insider, 3/03/2016 A life-size sculpture of the Nazarene, depicted as a homeless person lying down on a bench, has been placed at the entrance of the Office of Papal Charities. It was created by...
A prayer for women’s priesthood
From Iglesia Descalza, by Rebel Girl This prayer for women priests and the sketch to the right, were produced by a Benedictine nun at the Monasterio de Sant Benet in Catalonia, Spain, Sr. Montserrat Unterlöhner (photo), and were originally published in Catalan on...
Pope Francis restores the good sense of Jesus
by Leonardo Boff, Theologian-Philosopher, Earthcharter Commission
Pope Francis’ speeches are not framed either by the doctrines or dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church. It is not that he does not appreciate them, but that he understands that they are theological works created during different historical times. Those doctrines and dogmas provoked religious wars, schisms, excommunications, the burning of theologians and women (such as Joan of Arc and the women considered witches) at the stake of the Holy Inquisition. That lasted for several centuries and the author of these lines had a bitter experience in the cubicle where the accused were interrogated in the forbidding building of the former Inquisition, located to the left of the Basilica of Saint Peter.
Pope Francis has engendered a revolution in the thinking of the Church, returning to the praxis of the historical Jesus. He is restoring what is now called “The Tradition of Jesus”, that precedes the present Gospels, written 30-40 years after His execution on the cross. The Tradition of Jesus, or as it is also called in The Acts of the Apostles, “the path of Jesus”, is grounded more on values and ideals than on doctrine. The essentials are unconditional love, mercy, forgiveness, justice and preference for the poor and the outcast, and a total openness to God the Father. Jesus, to put it bluntly, did not intend to found a new religion. He wanted to teach us how to live. To live with fraternity, solidarity and caring for each other.
Vatican to undertake ecological initiatives during Easter season
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- During Holy Week and in the Easter season, the Vatican will take part in several initiatives highlighting the importance of ecology and the care for creation. The Governorate of Vatican City State announced March 18 that the thousands of floral...
Unique ‘songs of sorrow’ sung during Lent in Bangladesh
Dhaka: As darkness descends, Montu Tolentino makes his way to a house in Chorakhola village situated about 40-kilometers from Dhaka.Once at the house the 45-year-old farmer joins around 30 Catholic villagers in singing traditional Lenten songs called koshter gaan...
Report on Local Gathering
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Local Gathering Prayers and/or Prayer Service
[PDF] This is a suggested format for a communal prayer service to begin a gathering. Leaders should feel free to adapt/change, shorten or substitute any other readings, songs or prayers that would be appropriate for the group. Where a series of meetings are going to...
The Synod on Synodality
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Reforms We Are Seeking
Online Young Adult Seekers Small Christian Communities
Meeting ID: 863 4519 4432
Passcode: Evangelize
Young Adult Seekers Articles
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