Welcome to the International Church Reform Network website.
As an International network of reform groups we build alliances
as we confront issues of injustice within the Catholic Church.
We learn, reflect, and take action together.
Contacts:
ICRN Steering Committee: ICRN Website: https://icrn.info/
Stella Baltazar fmm (India)
Bob Bonnot (USA)
Frank Callus (UK)
Roy Donovan (Ireland)
Astrid Lobo Gajiwala (India)
Rastislav Kocan (Slovakia)
Max Stetter (Germany)
ICRN was founded in 2012 for the purpose of drawing together the best practices of communities around the world to bring about a Church that is welcoming and inclusive, reflecting and living the Gospel message so as to bring about the reign of God in our troubled world.
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Media Release – for immediate release
CATHOLICS REJECT SYNODAL CHARADES
Catholic groups representing many thousands of Catholics throughout the world* have written to the Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops questioning the commitment of many bishops to the very concept of synodality. A copy of the letter is attached.
The letter rejects the widespread autocratic governance in the Church’s clericalist hierarchy. The signatories assert that the recent Canonical Commission’s proposed canon laws mandating synodality will fail without strong papal reinforcement.
Synodality
Synodality has been mandated by the late Pope Francis and by Pope Leo as:
• the specific modus vivendi et operandi of the Church, the People of God
• demanding listening to the faithful, inclusiveness, accountability and transparency
• applying to all Christian decision making, especially in the Church, vital to genuinely Christian governance.
• “part of the ordinary Magisterium of the Successor of Peter”,
• “the appropriate interpretative framework for understanding hierarchical ministry.”
Synodality is the antithesis of clericalist autocracy. Autocracy and clericalism were major factors in the cover-up of clerical child sexual abuse.
Synodal Charades
The signatories to the letter expose global synodal failures – “synodal charades”:
“. . . many bishops continue to lead and decide unilaterally and autocratically. Many of the mandated diocesan synods are in fact episcopally controlled, far from the spirit of synodality, with bishops determining the agendas, the participants, processes, and outcomes.”
Continued exclusion of Women
The signatories note that canon law continues to exclude women from ‘offices the exercise of which requires the power of order or the power of ecclesiastical governance’, despite the conclusion of the Synod on Synodality, that:
“There is no reason or impediment that should prevent women from carrying out leadership roles in the Church. . .”
Aim of Letter:
In essence, the signatories request the General Secretary to ensure that:
• bishops commit to synodality in practice and culture,
• all the people of God be included in synodal engagement,
• canons excluding women from leadership and ministry be repealed
• bishops and priests include the faithful fully in the spirit of synodality.
Media contact: Any of the signatories* or
General Contact, Peter Johnstone: E: PJgovernance@gmail.com; Ph: +61 419 307 566
Church Renewal Signatory organisations
We Are Church International, Root & Branch, Council of Australasian Catholics, Spirit Unbounded, Catholic Church Reform International, International Church Reform Network, Association of Catholic Priests
Contact details for signatories
We Are Church International
Colm Holmes – Chair
Root & Branch
Mary Varley, for the Core Team
E: hello@rootandbranchsynod.org
Council of Australasian Catholics
Eleanor Flynn, Kevin Liston – Co-chairs
E: contact@australasiancatholics.org
Spirit Unbounded
Penelope Middelboe and Claus Geissendoerfer
– Administrators on behalf of 50 companions
Catholic Church Reform International
Rene Reid – Director
E: info@CatholicChurchReformIntl.org
International Church Reform Network
Max Stetter
E: salaam@t-online.de
Association of Catholic Priests
Tony Flannery CSsR – Member Leadership Team
www.associationofcatholicpriests.ie
E: info@associationofcatholicpriests.ie
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What is a Small Christian Community
and How to Start One
October 21, 2026
Sponsored by Spirit Unbounded, We Are Church Int’l,
Catholic Church Reform Int’l and Int’l Church Reform Network
Small Christian Communities (SCCs) are small groups who gather regularly—usually in homes, online, or parish settings—to live and deepen their faith together. They are sometimes called Small Christian Communities, Basic Ecclesial Communities, Basic Christian Communities, or Small Faith Communities, depending on the country and context. A SCC is more than a Bible-study or social group. Ideally, it becomes a small expression of the Church itself—a community where people pray, read Scripture, share their faith and life experiences, and respond to the needs of one another.
A typical community might include 8–15 people in varied formats:
- sharing their insights into the coming Sunday readings in their homes or online.
- gathering in parish centers to share their faith, build lay leadership, or search for ways to build a synodal community.
- University settings with young people sharing their concerns on social and environmental justice issues and offering support for various life issues they face.
- a Eucharistic community where they celebrate the liturgy, have dialogue homilies, and break bread together.
Their roots in Catholic life
The idea has deep roots in the experience of the early Christian communities described in Acts of the Apostles: believers gathered together, listened to the apostles’ teaching, prayed, shared their possessions, broke bread, and cared for one another. In the modern Catholic Church, SCCs became particularly important in Latin America, Africa, and parts of Asia, where large parishes and limited numbers of clergy made smaller communities a practical way of sustaining Christian life. The Second Vatican Council provided an important theological foundation by emphasizing the Church as the People of God and calling the baptized to a more active participation in the Church’s life and mission. In some form, SCCs are mentioned eight times in the final document of the Synod on Synodality.
SCCs and synodality
There is a particularly strong connection between SCCs and the contemporary Catholic emphasis on synodality. A healthy Small Christian Community can provide a place where people listen to one another, listen to Scripture, discern together, and act together. This means the community is not simply a place where a priest or other leader tells people what the Church teaches. The members themselves have an opportunity to bring their experiences, questions, gifts, and concerns into the process of discernment. This can make SCCs a practical way of putting the principle of “walking together” into everyday Catholic life.
A SCC need not replace the parish or the ordained ministry. Rather, it complements them. In the parish, a priest may provide pastoral guidance, celebrate the Eucharist and other sacraments, and help maintain the community’s connection with the wider Church. But through SCCs, the community itself can take significant responsibility for prayer, mutual support, evangelization, service, and discerning how to respond to social justice issues.
Why SCCs can be significant today
One of their greatest strengths is that they can create a form of Catholic community that is relational rather than primarily institutional. People come to know one another personally. They can talk about faith in connection with marriage, family, work, politics, suffering, aging, poverty, relationships, and the challenges of contemporary life. They can also learn to disagree without becoming divided. In that sense, a SCC can become a place where the community practices a process of becoming a synodal Church: encounter → listening → discernment → action.
And perhaps most importantly, it can help people experience that being Church is not something done for them by clergy; it is something in which the whole baptized community participates. Ordinary people in the Church can facilitate these groups. Often the resistance to starting such groups lies in the lack of confidence among many of the baptized believing they are able to rise to this enjoyable task, so, they leave it to the clergy and religious. We must overcome this inhibition!
We hope you will join us for this webinar. It will be offered twice to accommodate all regions of the world. Come to listen, to learn, and to share ideas. After the presentations, participants choose the type of SCC of immediate interest and gather in breakout rooms to discuss the possibilities.
We’ll then return to the main room where all can share what ideas inspired them and what they intend to do as follow through.
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