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Council of the Baptized January Meeting PDF Print E-mail
Friday, 13 January 2012 22:29

 

 

The Council of the Baptized

Serving Catholics in the Archdiocese of St. Paul/Minneapolis

 

Call: Karin Grosscup at (612) 825-4069

                                                                                                          

Catholics of the Archdiocese Find a New Voice in Council of the Baptized

 

•   The Council of the Baptized is a new, 21-member panel of lay Catholics from all geographic areas of the St. Paul and Minneapolis Archdiocese. The first Council of its kind in the United States, it is a collegial voice for Catholics in the 12 county Archdiocese.  The Council holds its first meeting on Tuesday, January 17, 2012, at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, 700 South Snelling, St. Paul at 7:00 p.m.

 

•   The Council was chartered by the Catholic Coalition for Church Reform (CCCR), an umbrella organization of Minnesota Catholic groups that promote full participation by baptized Catholics in all aspects of church life. 

 

•   Council members were nominated in September 2011 at a diocese-wide Synod of the Baptized, open to all baptized Catholics. The Council, formed from those persons who accepted nomination, was commissioned on October 22, 2011.

 

•   Representing faithful Catholics, the Council takes its authorization to assemble from canon law and from the Second Vatican Council, both of which call the laity to be a vital partner in discerning and communicating understanding of the Gospel message.  It is a non-juridical, free association of Catholics sanctioned by canon 215 of the Code of Canon Law.*

 

•   The Council’s aim is to hear Catholics’ voices in matters of conscience and to communicate their concerns throughout the Archdiocese.

 

•   Ongoing listening sessions have already begun throughout the Archdiocese. In these sessions, lay Catholics are invited to express their concerns of conscience and to submit them to the Council.

 

•   The Council expects to process these concerns and to issue documents that express the best thinking available to the archdiocesan community.  It will also endorse action programs implemented by members of the community and it will recommend programs for staffing and funding by the Archdiocese.

 

*1983 Code of Canon Law, Canon 215: The Christian faithful are at liberty freely to found and direct associations for purposes of charity or piety or for the promotion of the Christian vocation in the world and to hold meetings for the common pursuit of these purposes.

 

Decree on the Apostolate of Laity, Section 3: “The laity derive the right and duty to the apostolate from their union with Christ the head; incorporated into Christ’s Mystical Body through Baptism and strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit through Confirmation, they are assigned to the apostolate by the Lord Himself.”

 

Click on Council of the Baptized on the main menu to see the Council Members for 2012-2013.
Last Updated on Tuesday, 17 January 2012 13:19
 

 

 

Archdiocesan Catholics want a voice in the direction of their local church.
We want a local church inclusive of all age groups, all cultures, and points of view,
where communication promotes spiritual growth.
We want to manifest God’s love for the world as was Jesus’ mission.
To further our goal of participation, CCCR has founded a charter Council of the Baptized,

To learn more about the Council of the Baptized Click here


Interested in hosting or attending a Listening Session? Click here
 
Communication with Archdiocese

Catholic Coalition for Church Reform (CCCR) wants to work with the Archbishop toward the mission of the Church in this Archdiocese.  Essential to working together is a shared vision, and essential to a shared vision is honest, mutually valued communication.  In this section you will find the letters CCCR has written to the Archbishop and other leaders in the Archdiocese to begin that process of communication.  

Click here to view Correspondence
 

 

Conscience and Catholicisim

(summarized by Sr. Christine Schenk csj)

Conscience: A Right and Duty to Speak. Too often, Catholics raised in the “pay, pray and obey” culture of Catholicism are unaware that Church law tells us it is not only our right but sometimes our duty to speak out aboutmatters which concern the good of the Church. (Canon 212.3) Most Catholics are surprised to learn the authentic teaching of the Catholic Church is that whenever there is conflict between one’s conscience and Church teaching,one must always obey one’s conscience. In fact two giants of Catholic thought, St. Thomas Aquinas and CardinalJohn Henry Newman strongly supported the rights of conscience:

Anyone upon whom the ecclesiastical authority, in ignorance of the true facts, imposes a demand

that offends against his clear conscience, should perish in excommunication rather than violate his

conscience. (Thomas Aquinas quoted in Richard P. McBrien, Catholicism. Minneapolis: Winston Press, 1980 p.1003)

Certainly, if I am obliged to bring religion into after-diner toasts, (which indeed does not seem

quite the thing) I shall drink, --to the Pope, if you please, --still, to Conscience first, and to the Pope

afterwards” (John Henry Newman: Letter to the Duke of Norfolk, quoted in John T. Ford, Dancing the Tight Rope: Newman’s view of Theology. CTSA Proceedings 40, 1985, p.133.)

What follows is a brief summary of Church teaching about conscience and responsible dissent. I offer it with the hope of helping ordinary Catholics reclaim a rich tradition that not only values the voice of God “echoing in their depths” but respects their freedom, indeed their responsibility to act upon it.

Read more...
 

CCCR follows the American Catholic Council in these principles:

About the Dialogue:

Our dialogue is informed by three fundamental tenets drawn from the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Vatican II). These three tenets inform our identity and responsibility as adult members of the Catholic Church:

  • As baptized Catholics, each of us shares in the ministry of Jesus, the Christ;
  • Because all of us are the Church, the common sense of faithful Catholics (sensus fidelium) is a legitimate agent of the Holy Spirit and serves to inform Church practice and teaching, in tandem with Scripture, Tradition and the magisterium;
  • As adult Catholics, we are called to nurture an informed conscience that is the final arbiter of our actions;

Paul VI to the Roman Curia
23 April, 1966

Whatever were our opinions about the Council’s various doctrines before its conclusions were promulgated, today our adherence to the decisions of the Council must be whole hearted and without reserve; it must be willing and prepared to give them the service of our thought, action and conduct. The Council was something very new: not all were prepared to understand and accept it. But now the conciliar doctrine must be seen as belonging to the magisterium of the Church and, indeed, be attributed to the breath of the Holy Spirit.
 
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