Ten Principled Charter
A Roman Catholic Church Transformed
August 2014
Principle One: Gender Equality. The path to a female pope in God’s good time opened.
Principle Two: Married Priesthood. With gender equality it follows, priests, male and female.
Principle Three: Sex. Alert, a major upgrade is needed. It is fair to say that the Church’s teaching on sex and reproduction is so out of date comparisons with Galileo will not be out of the question.
Principle Four: Universal and Decentralized. The imposition of singularity where there is plurality always leads to injustice. The Sacred what is universal, the Ordinary what is decentralized.
Principle Five: Marriage. Sacred marriage with vows of life long sexual fidelity (celibacy for two) honored. No fault annulment … when love becomes destructive, time to call off the marriage, but not the legitimacy of progeny.
Principle Six: Sanctity of Human Life. The sanctity of human life a continuing refrain echoed through the centuries.
Principle Seven: Mystical Traditions Upheld. Only through the mystical eyes of Love can we see truly our Sacramental Nature.
Principle Eight: Democratized. How democracy will look in a Church transformed will be a matter for careful reflection, but a transformed Roman Church will be a democratized church in matters of governance.
Principle Nine: Global Social Justice. Human rights for all are assured in the Courts under global social justice.
Principle Ten: Church and State. These powers separated yet related as co-creators of heaven on earth.{jcomments on}
1. I fully agree with the vision of our ST. Particularly with ” We need to create a new mindset in the people.” This will however be a huge work. Because it means, among others, to RE-THINK with the people : Jesus’ plan, our rights and duties in the social world, our way of celebrating and praying, even our faith (giving much more importance to Jesus risen and rising up our world).
2. This means mainly EMPOWERING the (Small) Christian Communities, in order to guide them to become adult, democratic, participative, fraternal… communities, able to enter in a “discernment process”, “judging by themselves what is just” (Lk 12, 57). Asking themselves WHY is our Church not as democratic, WHY is it not as participative… as we wish.
3. Fortunately we are not alone for realizing this huge work. I have checked the quoted web site on “Small Christian Communities” and was happy to discover, among other positive news, your (american) National Alliance of Parishes Restructering into Communities”. Is this alliance still ‘alive’ ? Could it not inspire our ST ? Were it not useful to include it already in the preparation of the 2018 Synod ?
4. Fortunately this re-thinking and discernment has already begun, “real change is already happening” as you say. In the Church but also in the world : democracy, participation, fraternity, co-operation (even in management) are progressing. I like to say : the world is pregnant of the Reign of God.
Best wishes for continuing your and our marvelous work. {comments on}
Jo from Belgium
{jcomments on}
I fully agree with the conclusions of the ST. Specially with “We need to create a new mindset in the people”.
1. This is however a very huge work to do. We will have to help the Christian Communities to RE-THINK : Jesus’ plan, our human and Christian mission in the world, our way of celebrating and praying, even our faith (giving much more importance to Jesus risen and rising us up).
2. But this is necessary in order to get the adult, participative, democratic, fraternal… communities, able to enter into the “discernment process”, where they are in capacity of “judging by themselves what is just” (Lk 12 57), not as silent followers to what they have be trained during centuries.
3. For this huge work of EMPOWERING the Christian Communities we are not alone. In the quoted web site on “Small Chr. Communities”, I discovered the (american) Alliance of Parishes Restructuring into Communities”. Is this organization still ‘alive’ ? Could they not inspire our ST ? be included in the preparation of the 2018 Synod ?
4. Fortunately this re-thinking and discernment has already begun, “real change is already happening” as you say. In the Church but also in the world : democracy, participation, fraternity, co-operation (even in management) are progressing. I like to say : the world is pregnant of the Reign of God.{jcomments on}
A large part of our CCRI Strategy Team call today was somewhat philosophical discussing the value of our promoting local gatherings, which we believe will eventually be seen as a reinforcement to many events happening around the world. Small local gatherings will inevitably serve as a good first step to prepare for any People’s Synod that might be forthcoming in the future.
In his encyclical, Amoris Laetitia, Francis seems to move beyond addressing the pastoral issues regarding crisis in family life toward leading the Church into a more “discerning” way of proceeding. He continually emphasizes a discernment process that respects the role of the Bishops but also listens for the voice of the Holy Spirit expressed in the hearts and minds of the lay faithful. CCRI is developing a slogan: Act locally – think globally. Through these local gatherings, we see the possibility of people, through group discussion, discovering a kind of discernment process for themselves as they sort out the issues they face in their lives. They don’t need a decree from on high to tell them what is right. They figure it out by being part of a discussion group with like-minded people.
In the past, we’ve been encouraged to push for policy changes at the highest level of the Church. But the longer we’re involved in working for reform, we are coming to realize that real reform comes from evolution of People’s thinking and how they are living their Christian faith. Of course, we’d like to effect structural change in the church and we will never give up striving for this. But real change is already happening – not quite like we originally envisioned it – but in the minds and hearts of the Faithful. Francis himself is already doing this by his call for a more merciful church. Maybe by Synod 2018, more acceptance of some of our reforms will begin to happen in various local communities. The issue of artificial birth control has already been decided by the People. We rejected Humanae Vitae. The LGBT community is far more widely accepted today than in the past. And this is happening despite the official Church calling them a disordered state. If married priests or women priests are meant to be, it will happen when various local communities have no other choice but to ordain married men and women because faith leaders are needed. It doesn’t need a decree from the Vatican. We need to create a new mindset in the people.
But for any kind of reform to come about, we need reform groups to work together. We have a long way to go in that regard. As Joan Chittister said to us: “We need to raise a common voice on a single issue—the immediate need for the genuine renewal of the church. The problem is that we can’t get anyone to take seriously the most serious issues in the church because they have yet to take the Reform of the institution itself seriously. . . . By speaking out together–a strong chorus of calls for Reform–we can provide a common, a clear, a strong and ongoing voice for the yet incomplete vision of Vatican II.{jcomments on}