RECOMMENDATIONS

Prioritize inclusivity

It is vital for the Church to strive to include all members of the body of Christ in Church life, especially the marginalized — young adults, people of color, women, low-income individuals, and LGBTQ Catholics.

• Create organizational structures that prioritize and actively seek to ensure diversity of representation in all leadership circles.

• Evaluate how parishes, dioceses, and Catholic organizations interact with diverse communities and take steps to actively avoid treating those communities as “other.”

• Evaluate organizational structures, including leadership recruitment processes (including advisory bodies) to embrace diverse people and ideas.

• Welcome those experiencing poverty and homelessness into active life in the Church.

• Seek leaders of diverse income levels for Church leadership roles and take steps to accommodate the varying needs of individuals — such as offering childcare and meals during parish council and other meetings, or scheduling meetings on weekends or evenings.

• Identify authentic ways of engaging with communities that are largely absent from leadership — such as people of color, young adults, immigrants, people with disabilities, LGBTQ Catholics, those experiencing poverty — to build relationships based on dignity and respect.

• Utilize synodal processes to evaluate and consider how to provide missionary and pastoral care to all individuals, especially those on the margins.

Strengthen unity through dialogue and conflict transformation

The Church needs to become a model for, and a teacher of, how to live in unity among the great diversity and polarization of our world with a particular focus on charitable dialogue and conflict resiliency.

• Create and facilitate spaces of transparent dialogue where conflict can be addressed openly and where every participant is treated with dignity and respect.

• Employ restorative justice practices within faith communities to facilitate constructive conversations on difficult topics.

• Work to reframe how faith communities view and approach conflict by regularly facilitating spaces of encounter.

• Maintain transparent, accessible avenues for sharing feedback and experiences beyond synodal consultations.

• Include principles of synodality in all pastoral planning processes.

• Invest in training for conflict transformation and facilitation for leaders in parishes, dioceses, and Catholic organizations.

• Create and train a conciliation ministry at the parish or diocesan level that can be mobilized to properly facilitate difficult conversations and utilize restorative justice practices as conflicts arise.

Be agents of transformation

For positive transformation to occur, we must do the hard work of changing the ways we lead in the Church by encouraging leaders to find energy to learn new things and change patterns.

• Commit to anti-racism in parishes, dioceses, and Catholic organizations by leveraging reporting and investigation practices to address instances of direct discrimination based on race.

• Seek expert consultation to identify institutional racism in parish, diocesan, and organizational structures, establish a protocol to remove racist policies or practices, and seek ways to make amends with those who have been harmed.

• Establish a racial justice committee that meets regularly to reflect upon and address institutional racism and commit to making changes.

• Provide reconciliation services and a safe place for those who experienced racism and discrimination to seek support and a path forward.

• Create opportunities for real relationships to be built among people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds in our parishes.

• Provide formation to leaders of faith communities that emphasizes qualities including, but not limited to, humility, vulnerability, openness, and curiosity.

• Foster an organizational culture that views mistakes as learning experiences, not failures, by offering regular feedback, training, and support to all individuals that allows leaders to learn and grow from mistakes.