By Christine Schenk, CSJ and Marie Graf

Over 100 long-time friends and supporters gathered in Cleveland on September 27 to kick off FutureChurch’s 35th Anniversary year.  This was the first of several events planned in various cities across the US in the coming year, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston,
and Washington, D.C.  

Former Cleveland board members, founding parish leaders, enthusiastic parishioners, women religious, and a few good priests gratefully  commemorated the lasting impact FutureChurch has had on church reform—here at home, internationally,  and in Rome.

In her opening prayer, FutureChurch program associate Martha Ligas reminded us that God is always present in every moment and that we find joy and purpose together. 

Marie Graf, FutureChurch Board Chair, thanked those present who were there 35 years ago: “We were a group of faithful and concerned Catholics from parishes across Cleveland who gathered with one simple purpose: to open the structures of ministry within the Church so that the Eucharist and the Sacraments would continue to be available to all Catholics.” FutureChurch was born from a grassroots movement  of parishioners, pastors and women religious who were concerned about our future as the Roman Catholic Church.

Led by Fr. Louis Trivison and Sr. Christine Schenk, our founding parishes—Church of the Resurrection, The Community of St. Malachi and St. Mark Parish—understood that the plummeting number of priests would have a debilitating effect on parish life.  They set out to educate and advocate for the changes needed to ensure the vitality of the Church.  They also quickly enlisted public support from an additional 25 parishes and religious organizations in the Diocese of Cleveland.

Graf  gratefully acknowledged the presence of three women religious from the  Congregation of Saint Joseph—Sisters Jeanne Cmolik, Marie Gillich and Kathy Thomas—whose  visionary leadership allowed Sr. Chris Schenk to become the organization’s founding executive director.  Still today,  the CSJ community continues its steadfast partnership support—both financially and through hosting events.  

Gratitude was also extended to Cleveland’s long-time office volunteers:  Kathy Rossman, Carol Anders, Fran DeChant, Maureen Cerny, and the late Helen Brinich, who faithfully showed up every week to do the work vital to every nonprofit.

Over the course of  35 years, many volunteers across the US and abroad also served in key committee roles and brought our programming dreams to life. With their help, FutureChurch grew from a largely regional organization to one with international standing in the global reform community.

Current Executive Director, Russ Petrus, gave a short history of FutureChurch beginning with how our foundational emphasis on the priest shortage informed subsequent programming. His carefully curated slide presentation featured FutureChurch initiatives that catalyzed significant systemic change, especially the Women in Church Leadership, St. Mary Magdalene, and  Save our Parish Community projects. 

Vigorous advocacy at synods of Bishops—including Director Emerita Deb Rose’s skilled activism at the Synod on the Family, the Synod on the Amazon and most recently the Synod on Synodality— created a space for laity to have a voice in church decision-making.  Throughout its history, FutureChurch has stayed grounded in its commitment to building a more just, inclusive Church.

Program associates Martha Ligas and Olivia Hastie each reflected on what being Catholic means to a younger generation. They spoke movingly about the challenges of committing to a flawed Church as well as the rewards of advocating for change.

Sr. Chris Schenk introduced the headline speaker,  Tom Roberts, an  award-winning journalist writer, and editor at the National Catholic Reporter.  

In  a  wide-ranging presentation Roberts emphasized the importance of asking big questions. He cited Pope Francis’s “stunning response” to a German journalist, who on a return trip from Africa,
asked if the church should consider lifting its prohibition on condoms. Francis could have dodged the question. Instead he replied:  

The question seems too small for me . . . The problem is bigger . . . It makes me think of the question they asked Jesus. ‘Tell me, master, is it licit to heal on the Sabbath?’  . . .  Malnutrition, exploitation of  persons, slave work, lack of drinking water—these are the problems . . . When people are dying, I would say not to ask if it is licit or illicit  to heal.  I say to humanity,  when all are healed , when there is not injustice in this world, we can speak, then, of the Sabbath.

Roberts touched on the magnitude of change in a Catholic church that has moved away from teaching that only Catholics can be saved,  to a church that understands that all spiritual traditions have something to offer: “Who could have imagined Pope Francis speaking to young people in Indonesia, making the strongest affirmation of that [Vatican II] teaching when he said, ‘All religions are paths to reach God. They are like different languages, different dialects to get there. But God is God for everyone … “

The take-away? “The church can change in big ways,”  said Roberts, who then suggested what that change might have to tell us about God: 

Our questions have to be bigger. I think in this era and this place, we must resist what so much religion, particularly US style of Christianity, Catholic and Protestant, does, to reduce God to a controlled entity that will fit into all our biases and ideologies, conservative and liberal. If we’re feeling too comfortable with our God, if we think we’ve got God figured out, then we’re very likely wrong about a lot of things.

Alluding to the ubiquitous “spiritual but not religious” phenomenon, Roberts referenced Canadian philosopher John Varghese who pointed out the dangers associated with our current disillusionment with institutions:  “What we’re losing is any way in which institutions can stand as bearers of tradition and places where there are exemplary role models for us.   The dangers of a ‘spiritual without religious,’ means the religion of me. And that carries with it all kinds of problems.”  

Varghese, said Roberts,  found hope in the growth of small groups around the globe—including churches and small religious communities—that  are promoting “all manner of human interests” and have the capacity to counter libertarian elements and revitalize institutions from the bottom up.  To this point, Roberts gave a shout out to FutureChurch’s Pentecost project: “I think there really is no better example of what [Varghese] is talking about than FutureChurch’s Pentecost project, celebrating new models of community.”

Roberts then offered sage advice in the pursuit of our FutureChurch mission:

Even in our deepest exasperation with the institutional structures, I would say, don’t throw it all away. Don’t walk completely away from it. Expand on it. Certainly,  keep asking deep and challenging questions up including of ourselves, but never stop appreciating the richness of what has brought us to these questions and the richness that sustains us in this moment.

In closing, this wise Catholic journalist first spoke of Jesus and then ended as he had begun—with the penetrating insight of Pope Francis:

[Jesus] wasn’t terribly obedient to the religious leaders of his day. And we do well to remember that his harshest words were reserved not for ordinary people, but for religious leaders who unduly burden people. We need to find the kinds of spaces he spent his time in and reach out to those people.

So let’s go to the margins, to those in need. Let’s keep the questions big and let’s not stop asking them. Let’s take care of each other. And when justice is done, then we can deal with the small stuff.