About CFOTAE 2013

"Repair my house." marks the vision that inspired St. Francis of Assisi to embark on his radical mission of church renewal.

Today the Catholic Church needs a similar mission of repair and renewal. The signs of crisis are evident. It is felt in the “sex abuse scandal”, in the issues of women’s ordination, mandatory/optional celibacy, married clergy, and the questions these issues have raised about internal structures of authority and clerical culture coming especially from our students, teachers young and old, chaplains, parents and committed priests. Meanwhile the percentage of those identifying themselves as "former Catholics" grows at an alarming rate. If North American “former Catholics” were to form a single Church it would be the second largest on the continent.

In response, Father Michael Crosby OFM sees a challenge to all the church: to return to the basic message of Jesus, a message that is supported, not contradicted, by advances in science and cosmology. Crosby envisions a new way of being Catholic and a set of practices that draws on the contemplative, compassionate, and life-giving spirit of Christ's Kingdom (or "Kindom,")—a vision of God's Trinitarian reality to be brought about on earth as it is in heaven.

Forum will be an experience that helps teachers, chaplains, parents and priests learn how to respond to this challenge. Students’ concerns and distrust of “Catechism” answers; teachers’ oft-unspoken questions; parents’ misgivings about their childrens’ faith and priests’ uncertainties about the content of pastoral letters and homilies are all grist to the mill at Forum.

If you would like further information, please contact John Quinn at johnquinn@cfotae.ca or 905-934-9115