Lay groups call for inclusion at Synod

This week, the Bishops are gathering in Rome to set the agenda of next year's Synod. Even though they didn't invite the laity to participate, people are lifting their voices to be heard!

Several groups, including our friends from New Ways Ministry, FutureChurch and Women's Ordination Conference will be in Rome taking advantage of the opportunity to meet with other church reform groups from around the world, talk to international media and hold up a few signs at the Vatican.CTA is busy here in the U.S. working with the media to make sure the voices of diverse families are represented in coverage of the Synod and the message that we need fundamental change in how the church relates to modern families is clear. Band aids and window-dressing will not work. Like the Church's teaching on contraception and marriage, Catholics will continue to live by a faith, values, and a conscience rooted in justice and equality. Now is the time to update tired orthodoxy and make it consistent with the hearts, minds, hopes and joys of Catholics everywhere and we want to make sure that their voices are heard.

We also signed on to an international letter criticizing the Synod's lack of lay involvement in the issues that so closely affect our families. "Participants from the faithful will be a very small minority in an essentially male and clerical forum, and will be denied any direct role in actual decision-making. Only 25 women will participate (in a non-voting role) despite your call in Evangelii Gaudium 'to create broader opportunities for a more incisive female presence in the Church' and for the expansion of 'possible roles (for) women in decision-making in areas of the Church’s life.' It is critical that the Church’s pronouncements post-Synod be relevant, compassionate, sensitive and responsive to the current condition."

Kate McElwee and other US Church Reformers will be making sure to mention the many people who responded to the Vatican survey we made available earlier this year. "The people of God must be heard at this synod, not out of charity, but because they are baptized. Vatican II and Canon Law attest to their duty ‘to manifest their views on matters which concern the good of the Church (C 212.3)," said Kate "We initiated this survey because without the lived experiences of women and the voices of Catholic families in the room, the institution will be stuck."

In some cities, CTA members are participating in vigils to pray that the Bishops discern and act as true pastors. In others, people are using the opportunity to talk about the future of the Church or how their community ministers to families. Whatever the Bishops decide, we know that the people of God will never stop building the Church they believe in!