Dear Friends of FutureChurch: Happy New Year!
We hope you enjoy our January E-Newsletter.
You can share it with others by clicking here.
|
Sign Petition To Delay Flawed Translations. A Seattle pastor, Fr. Michael G. Ryan, has launched an online petition asking the bishops of the English-speaking world to study controversial new translations of the Roman missal in select parishes for a year before introducing them everywhere.
At the November 18 meeting of the US Bishops Conference, Bishop Donald W. Trautman of Erie, Pa sharply criticized the "slavishly literal" translation of the new Roman Missal from the original Latin into English, saying it could lead to a "pastoral disaster" because the vocabulary is not readily understandable by the average Catholic. "The vast majority of God's people ... are not familiar with words of the new missal like ineffable, consubstantial, incarnate, inviolate, oblation, ignominy, precursor, suffused and unvanquished.
For more info and to read and sign the petition click here
|
Timothy Radcliffe OP Links Irish Abuse Crisis to Failed Clerical Culture The former master general of the worldwide Dominican order and a highly regarded religious leader in the British Isles, recently told a two-day gathering of Dublin priests: "I'm convinced this whole sexual abuse crisis is deeply linked with power and the way power operates in the church at all levels, from the Vatican to the parish sacristan. Often, it is not the power of Jesus who is gentle and humble of heart."... Most priests are holy, humble, unpretentious people, but this is often in the face of a clerical culture, fighting against a clerical culture which values high titles and positions - Your Eminence, all these ridiculous distinctions, right reverend, very reverend ... this crisis may be the beginning of a profound renewal of the church." To read more click here |
Sponsor a Listening Session On the Future of the Church The American Catholic Council is a new coalition of organizations, communities and individuals organizing "discussion at every level of the Catholic Church in the United States to consider the state and future of our Church."
The coalition will convene a nationwide conference on Pentecost 2011 (June 10-12) at Cobo Hall in Detroit, Michigan.
But first it hopes to encourage local and regional listening sessions to be held over the next two years.
To download a free toolkit for sessions in your home, parish or small faith community click here
For more info on the American Catholic Council, Click here
|
Results of US Catholic Survey on Vatican Investigation.
In November, US Catholic magazine surveyed women religious and laity about the Vatican investigation of US nuns. Sixt two percent believe sisters who take controversial stands on interreligious dialogue, homosexuality and women's ordination are "prophetic leaders guiding the church in new directions."
The vast majority of survey respondents, and especially U.S. Catholic subscribers, sing the praises of the women who have taught, inspired, challenged, and served as role models for generations of U.S. Catholics. A significant majority believe the investigation is insulting and not justified.
To review comments and survey results click here To review comments and survey results click here
European Nuns Support US Sisters A European Assembly of Women Religious has written decrying the Vatican investigation of US women religious: "Our European Assembly would like to communicate to the Sisters of the U.S. conference our sadness by this decision of the institutional church; the lack of trust, it's tone of inquisition against women and the apparent refusal to dialogue. To read more click here
Circulate a Petition to Support the Sisters:A California parish group calling itself the Women of Magdala garnered 1400 signatures (half of parish adults) on a petition supporting US sisters and sent copies to church officials.
Click here for a petition template and sample bulletin announcements
For more info click here
|
Most Swiss Bishops Favor Married Priests The new head of the Swiss Bishops' Conference Bishop Norbert Brunner says that that the Swiss bishops are "quite unanimous" in their support for voluntary celibacy and that married men should be allowed to be priests in the Catholic Church
To read more click here
|
FutureChurch Optional Celibacy Campaign Goes International The FutureChurch website now has the capacity to send electronic and paper postcards in German, French and Spanish and Portuguese. In October, theologian Anthony Padovano of CORPUS carried information about our new international effort to leaders in the European Network and the International Federation for a Renewed Priestly ministry last October.
If you have concerned Catholic friends in other countries
Click here to encourage them to circulate the link to their address book
Download free Optional Celibacy Education/Prayer Kit
Optional Celibacy and the Year for Priests To celebrate the Year for Priests FutureChurch has created a Novena to the Holy Spirit for an Inclusive Priesthood_ to be prayed on the first Friday of every month during the Church's Year for Priests.
Click here for the Novena
|
Patriarchal Bias Can't Nullify the Word "I do not believe revelatory value of scripture is nullified because it comes from a biased point of view," said biblical scholar Sr. Dianne Bergant at FutureChurch's second Women and the Word: Bridging the Gaps conference held November 6 at Call To Action in Milwaukee. Bergant's morning keynote was good news to the nearly eighty women and men who gathered to learn and strategize ways of overcoming obstacles to gender balance in church preaching and proclamation.
In the afternoon, Sr. Chris Schenk spoke about FutureChurch's work at the Synod on the Word and suggested concrete strategies people can use at home to "put women back in the biblical picture."
And Ms. Barbara Guerin shared her powerful and often amusing experiences of reactivating a women's ministry group in her Southern California parish: "When we started, the main purpose of the group was to bake 4,000 cookies for the Knights of Columbus...I knew that wasn't going to work".
To read more click here
|
