Historian, writer, and commentator Paul Collins joins FutureChurch to share his insights on the legacies of Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal George Pell and what the future holds in a post-Benedict and post-Pell Church.
Biography: Born in Melbourne and now living in Canberra, Paul Collins is an historian, broadcaster, and writer. For many years he has worked in varying capacities in TV and radio and has written regularly for most of Australia’s leading newspapers and magazines, as well as for print media in the UK, the United States, Germany, and Austria. He has a Master’s degree in theology (Th.M.) from Harvard University, and a Doctorate in Philosophy (Ph.D) in history from the Australian National University (ANU), and is a Fellow of Trinity College of Music, London. He is the author of fourteen books and in March 2001 he resigned from the active priestly ministry of the Catholic Church after thirty-three years service due to a doctrinal dispute with the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith over his book “Papal Power (1997).” While he is well known as a commentator on Catholicism and the papacy, he also has a strong interest in environmental and population issues. Nowadays he works as a freelance writer, speaker and broadcaster on environmental issues, social ethics, theology, history and media.
Approximately 150 Catholics from the United States and Canada came together for two gatherings hosted by FutureChurch in January 2023 to pray and reflect on the Continental Stage Document.
These responses were offered after two evenings of prayer, listening to Scripture, a review of the Continental Stage Document, small group discussions, and written reflections. The participants were guided by the three questions posed in Part IV of the Continental Stage Document:
After having read and prayed with the DCS, which intuitions resonate most strongly with the lived experiences and realities of the Church in your continent? Which experiences are new or illuminating to you?
After having read and prayed with the DCS, what substantial tension or divergences emerge as particularly important in your continent’s perspective? What are the questions or issues that should be addressed and considered in the next steps of the process?
After having read and prayed with the DCS, looking at what emerges from the previous two questions, what are the priorities, recurring themes and calls to action that can be shared with other local Churches around the world and discussing during the First Session of the Synodal Assembly in October 2023?
Participants came together in prayer, to listen, dialogue, and discern if the Continental Phase Document authentically reflects our concerns, hopes, and priorities for the future of the Church.
FutureChurch hosts the first of two sessions dedicated to discerning the contents of the Synod Continental Phase Document, Enlarge the Space of your Tent. After song, scripture, and prayer, FutureChurch co-director, Deborah Rose offers a summary of the context of the document and the contents of section three, “Towards a missionary synodal church.”
“All Are Welcome” by Marty Haugen. Copyright 1994 by GIA Publications Inc. Music displayed and streamed with permission under OneLicense #A-737115.
Additional Resources:
Continental Phase Document Read More. (It would be very helpful to read Section III as completely as possible)
Highlights and notes from Section I, II, and III of the Continental Phase Document (Deb Rose’s slides) Read more
Summary of FutureChurch Synods Sessions – What Our Participants Said. Read more
FutureChurch hosts the second of two sessions dedicated to discerning the contents of the Synod Continental Phase Document, Enlarge the Space of your Tent. After song, scripture, and prayer, FutureChurch co-director, Deborah Rose offers a summary of the responses provided last week’s participants and invites participants to discern the three questions asked of the Synthesis drafting team:
Which intuitions resonate most strongly with the lived experiences and realities of the Church in your continent? Which experiences are new or illuminating to you?
What substantial tensions or divergences emerge as particularly important in your continent’s perspective? Consequently, what are the questions or issues that should be addressed and considered in the net steps of the process?
Looking at what emerges from the previous two questions, what are the priorities, recurring themes and calls to action that can be shared with other local Churches around the world and discussed during the First Session of the Synodal Assembly in October 2023?
Emily Reimer-Barry, Ph.D. presents FutureChurch’s first Respect Women Lecture. In her presentation, Dr. Barry addresses obstacles to women’s full participation in the leadership and decision-making of the Church and the justice consequences of such exclusion. She also presents an action plan for structural change and the full inclusion of women.
Dr. Emily Reimer-Barry is an associate professor and the chair of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Diego. She teaches courses in Catholic theological ethics, including sexual ethics, feminist ethics, war and peace, and ethical responses to HIV and AIDS. Reimer-Barry’s research explores the intersection of sexuality and social justice. She is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame (B.A. 2000), Weston Jesuit School of Theology (M.T.S., 2002), and Loyola University Chicago (Ph.D., 2008).
FutureChurch’s 2022 Fall Event Program includes biographies of our guests, a listing of our event sponsors, advertisements from friends of FutureChurch, and reports and updates on our programming.
Join us as we discuss synodality, what it means for each of us, our communities and parishes, and the wider church. Our main text will be “Synodality: A New Way of Proceeding in the Church” authored by Vatican Synod consultant Professor Rafael Luciani.
We will gather for three weeks in October (4, 11, 18) at 12noon ET for prayer, expert guidance, small group discussions, and actions we can take to make synodality a greater reality.
[caldera_form_modal id=”CF631a6db3d8663″]Register for These Sessions [/caldera_form_modal]
Session One: From Pastoral Conversion to Synodal Conversion
Read Chapters 1 – 4
According to Prof. Luciani, We are experiencing a crisis in the transformation of faith because we are still mired in a clerical institutional model.
As he notes, Yves Congar was one of the giants at the Second Vatican Council who understood most clearly that the clericalist institutional church desperately needed reforming. And Pope Francis has made overcoming it a cornerstone of his papacy saying to priests, “Clericalism is a true perversion in the Church…Clericalism condemns, separates, frustrates, and despises the people of God.”
Synodality is the re-structuring principle that transforms the Church from a Western, monocultural Church, centered on Rome and its primacy, to a global and intercultural Church, opening the way to recognize the authority of the local church.
The Second Vatican Council reinscribed the centrality of the church as thee “People of God.” Cardinal Leo Joseph Suenens, the principal architect of Lumen Gentium, described it as a rediscovery of the people of God as a whole, as a single reality” with each member of the church sharing co-responsibility for the life and work of the Church.
However, in the 1980s the blossoming of this newfound way of being was thwarted by a pope who, once again, emphasized the primacy of the hierarchy subordinating the “sense of the faithful.” Regressive policies and teachings undercut the reformist principles of Vatican II.
With his constant emphasis on synodality, Pope Francis wants to make take the church forward making this exercise of authority as the work of the entire People of God a constitutive ecclesial dimension and way of proceeding for this third millennium.
Although, under the papacy of John Paul II, there was a progressive deflation of the value of the local church as normative for interpreting tradition, theology, and faith, Pope Francis has emphasized that we become a “listening church” so that the People of God can be heard in their ” particular place and time” in order to know what the Spirit is saying and how to proceed.
In order to allow the Spirit to move us into this new phase of synodality, we must move into a new creative phase of receiving and implementing the Second Vatican Council.
How will this principle translate into new realities? That is the work we are undertaking today!
The video for this session will not be posted here at the request of our speaker. It has been sent to all the participants signed up for this study. To learn more contact debrose@futurechurch.org.
Join us as we take a deep dive into Dr. Shannen Dee Williams groundbreaking research, Subversive Habits: Black Catholic Nuns in the Long African American Freedom Struggle. We will explore the lives, experiences, struggles, and advances Black Catholic women religious made in the long struggle for freedom. This series will include prayer, study, and guest speakers. Please join us for an exciting exploration of our Catholic history and the women who changed the course of our faith.
Session One: Preface and Introduction
This first session covers the preface and introduction to Dr. Williams’ book. Deborah Rose, co-director of FutureChurch, provides a summary of the material and our guest, Sr. Anita Baird, DHM, offers her personal reactions.
Chapters 1 and 2 trace the emergence of Black Catholic communities; the struggles and barriers they faced and overcame; and, the unwavering commitment they made to education as a path to liberation in their formative years.
Here are resources that may be useful to you as you read each chapter.
An article about the founding of St. Augustine, Florida, where African descended people, free and enslaved, first came to the U.S. The Settlement of St. Augustine
An article about the Haitian Revolution which was a turning point for abolition and the influx of refugees that prompted the growth of communities of Black Catholic women religious. The Haitian Revolution
In this Second Session, we welcome Sr. Marcia Hall, OSP, who offers her insights and reactions as a member of the Oblate Sisters of Providence – the first successful community of Roman Catholic sisters of African descent in the United States.
Here is an excellent resource from PBS with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. that offers two minute videos on various aspects of Black history. The series is called “Black History in Two Minutes (or so)” with dozens of videos that will help you contextualize Dr. Williams’ book, “Subversive Habits.” https://blackhistoryintwominutes.com/
Thank you for your interest in celebrating the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene with us. Celebrating and lifting up Mary’s true role as Apostle of the Apostles is one of the most important things we can do for our Church and world.
This year, recognizing that horrific violence of every kind rages around us, we turn our focus particularly to epidemic of gun violence. How does Mary Magdalene’s story instruct and inspire us today as we seek to bring about change?
Through this prayer service, we will intentionally place ourselves with Mary at the foot of the cross as she witnesses Jesus’ violent death and remember those who have been killed in incidents of gun violence. We then place ourselves with Mary in the uncertain time between Crucifixion and Resurrection as we hear Kimberly Rubio and X. González speak to us through their grief and trauma in the immediate aftermath of their own experiences of gun violence. Finally, we join Mary as she sets out to the tomb on that first Easter morning to discover the Risen One and consider how Christ is calling us to join Mary as bearers of the Good News in a world so desperate for it today.
