NEWS & VIEWS
Bleecker & Elizabeth Streets
Peter Denio  |  Fall 2009

We read in Mark 6:30-34 that when the apostles returned to Jesus, eager to share their experiences from their ministry of teaching and healing, Jesus said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”

In that spirit, the Catholic Common Ground Initiative, active for the last twelve years, has taken this past year to produce a new strategic plan for the future of the Initiative.
The Initiative’s first strategic plan was unanimously received by the CCGI Committee and will chart the future of the Initiative.  As a part of this process the committee and its pastoral consultants were asked to envision what a realized future for the initiative would look like.  The future vision articulated for the Catholic Common Ground Initiative is:

The Catholic Common Ground Initiative is a living witness to the gospel call for unity.  Grounded in love for Christ and his church, and sustained by prayer, it creates environments where divisions can be overcome, so that “all may be one.”
           
Across the country, the Initiative fosters community and understanding among Catholics with diverse opinions and cultural traditions. Its commitment to prayerful dialogue, born of a deep desire for communion, is a source of renewal at all levels of the church and serves as a model for all persons of good will.

In all it does, the Initiative confidently proclaims with St. Paul that in Christ there is “neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, slave nor free.”

The Catholic Common Ground Initiative was announced in 1996 by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin through the public statement, “Called to Be Catholic: Church in a Time of Peril.” The statement called for the whole church to engage in practices that would encourage and seek unity. The Catholic Common Ground Initiative has grown in many ways in order to respond to the pressing issues of the times. As the Initiative charts a new course forward, various ways of fulfilling its purpose are being explored.

As a part of its past programming the Initiative has sponsored conferences and lectures on important topics of consequence to the Catholic Church.  In the future the Initiative will continue to explore new and varied ways to convene Catholics from diverse communities for prayerful dialogues on critical issues. It will also seek to enhance its resources for national, diocesan, parish, and academic use. In addition, the Initiative seeks to actively engage younger generations in its work. It will also seek to expand its collaboration with others in advancing shared purposes. 

We look forward to sharing more about the future of the Catholic Common Ground Initiative in the near future.

Peter Denio