ASSOCIATION FOR THE RIGHTS OF CATHOLICS IN THE CHURCH

VATICAN2 E-MAIL FORUM

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Vatican2 is the e-mail network for members of ARCC and progressive Catholics in general. Like the Catholic Church, our membership is diverse, sociologically and geographically. While most subscribers come from the U.S. and Canada, we have active participants from all over the world. Whether lay or clerical, old or young, female or male, we love our Church, but we do not identify this love with blind obedience. As a People of God, we consider it our duty to challenge the Church to become the best it can be and to help those in charge distinguish the essential from elements that are a function of time and culture. At the same time, we intend to remain firmly grounded in what is truly valuable in our Catholic tradition. In this spirit we are working on developing a Constitution for the Catholic Church.

While we have an open-door policy, ACTIVE PARTICIPATION IS LIMITED TO PEOPLE WHO SHARE THE FUNDAMENTAL PERSPECTIVE OF ARCC. IF YOU DON'T AGREE WITH OUR WAY OF BEING CATHOLIC (OR WITH BEING CATHOLIC, PERIOD!), YOU ARE WELCOME TO SIGN UP AND LISTEN, BUT DON'T ATTACK FELLOW MEMBERS FOR THEIR IDEAS, AND DON'T TRY TO CONVERT US TO AN ALTERNATE VIEW. On the other hand, keep in mind that we know that our Church has been pluralistic from the very beginning and continues to have room for a wide spectrum of practices and and beliefs. Just in time for this web-project one of our list members wrote a broadly applicable respose to a subscriber who had called members of this board "schismatics" and wrote that he intended to sign off. Click here if you want to read it.

If you find the material on the ARCC site interesting, please consider joining us on Vatican2. While we have an open-door policy, active participation is limited to people who share the fundamental perspective of ARCC. If you don't agree with our way of being Catholic (or with being Catholic, period!), you are welcome to sign up and listen, but don't attack fellow members for their ideas, and don't try to convert us to an alternate view. On the other hand, keep in mind that we know that our Church has been pluralistic from the very beginning and continues to have room for a wide spectrum of practices and beliefs. You might want to read Leonard Swidler's Dialogue Decalogue which presents an excellent introduction to the kind of non-adversarial conversation we encourage on this list. Remember that dialogue is neither debate nor preaching.

Please direct subscription requests to [listserv@listserv.temple.edu] and write on the first line of your message: [subscribe vatican2 yourfirstname yourlastname]. This is occasionally a fairly active list, and if your mailbox is small I would suggest you set yourself "digest"-- which means that you'll get one long message a day instead of fifty-odd short ones. If that's what you want to do, on the next line simply write: [set vatican2 digest].

VATICAN2 (Vatican2@listserv.temple.edu) is the e-mail discussion list for ARCC. Vatican2 was founded in spring of 1994 by Leonard Swidler, Professor of Catholic Thought and Interreligious Dialogue at Temple University. Vatican2 is a network of those who wish to share reflections and information in the spirit ofthe Second Vatican Council and ARCC, that is, a turn toward: DYNAMIC understanding of reality, DEMOCRATIZATION of church and world, DIALOGUE with the other, and DIRECTING concern toward this world along with the interior life.

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