Present on the call :
- Valerie Stroud ( UK )
- Christina Reymer ( New Zealand )
- Jean-Pierre Schmitz ( France )
- Rene Reid ( US )
- Clyde Christofferson ( US )
- Virginia Saldanha ( India )
- Kochurani Abraham ( India )
- Don Pribor ( US )
- Valerie :An online discussion in a UK group had highlighted an article in the UK Catholic Times proposing a Year of the Laity. There were some interesting views being shared there.
- Christina : A Global Forum of the People of God is where the people’s voice will truly be heard.
- Virginia : CCRI should declare a Year of the Laity and send a questionnaire to many countries asking about the status of lay people in church governance – parish and diocesan councils and participation in finance committees- are lay people involved in decision-making?
- Jean-Pierre : As regards CCRI being more involved with GCN – Brazilian planning meeting for Aparecida postponed – nothing new to add yet about the Gobal Forum. GCN supports the Year of the Laity and people on the Aparecida planning team are also on the Year of the Laity commission sponsored by the Brazilian bishops.
- Ashik : Lay people in Pakistan spoke up recently about the Pakistani bishop who allowed a Muslim politician to speak about politics in his cathedral during a recent mass. Lay people criticized the bishop and asked for some kind of sanction.
- Kochurani : met Martha Heizer of WACI at Paul Hwang’s gathering in Indonesia. WACI is an organized body of the laity that is auto-sufficient. CCRI should link up with WACI to create a larger network of lay people. Networking is the future of church reform. A Year of the Laity led by the Pope and the bishops will not be what CCRI wants.
- Valerie : Valerie was asked why it was difficult for CCRI to develop relationships with some other reform organisations. She said the chief reason seemed to be that CCRI had come in four years ago with all the energy and enthusiasm of the ‘new kid on the block’. Unfortunately this had been overwhelming to some other organisations who had perceived it as a desire to subsume them into CCRI rather than network with them. There was still suspicion and CCRI would only overcome this by its actions and approach over time.
- Rene : CCRI should publicize the Reformation project of WACI.
- Virginia : CCRI should start with small projects and publicize other group’s projects. In Aisa, only a minuscule minority of lay people question the hierarchy.
- Clyde : The Year of the Laity started at a lower level than the Vatican – the Brazilian Bishops Conference. CCRi tags along- the Pope wants grass- roots initiatives . CCRi should publicize what other dioceses are doing about empowering the laity.
- Rene : CCRI could ask Lula to write a report in English about the Brazilian Commission on the Year of the Laity and the various activities going on in Brazil for the Year of the Laity.
- Valerie : CCRI should be “ spreaders of the word of various activities that are going on around the world”. Can someone write a concept note about theYear of the Laity? Why declare a Year of the Laity? Clyde will draft a paragraph – other ST members will add their thoughts through e-mail. He will include some of the phrasing from the planning paper for the People’s Synod sponsored by the ACC – he wrote part of that paper so Janet will not feel CCRI is plagiarizing their work.
- Valerie : we need more voices from Asia, Africa, Latin America
- Rene : how does CCRI support the ACC People’s Synod ?