News and Media Releases

Catholic churches in Europe aim to give their synodal process a more concrete direction next week in Austria. Around 180 bishops, delegates, and theologians from over 30 countries will convene in Wels from September 14 to 17. Delegations from 28 bishops' conferences, including 23 bishops and two cardinals, will discuss a roadmap for the further implementation of synodality in Europe.

Synodality is considered the most important reform project of the Catholic Church in a long time. It refers to a Church that engages in more collaborative consultation, listening, and decision-making, thereby involving the entire People of God. The reform project originated in Rome: Pope Francis (2013-2025) initiated this path with the Synod on Synodality. Following the extensive consultations in Rome, the implementation phase is now underway until 2028. This phase will demonstrate how the often abstract guiding principles can be put into practice in dioceses, parishes, and other church structures.

This is the starting point for the four-day symposium in Wels. Delegations from 28 European bishops' conferences, spanning East and West, aim to develop a common roadmap for Europe. The meeting also serves as preparation for the European Church Assembly in spring 2028, which will precede the worldwide Church Assembly in October of the same year. Among the participants are Sister Nathalie Becquart, Undersecretary of the Synod Secretariat; Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, General Rapporteur of the World Synod; and canon lawyer Myriam Wijlens, all of whom closely monitor the global Church process from Rome.

Central and Eastern Europe strongly represented

Central and Eastern Europe is strongly represented at the conference, which has 187 participants. The President of the Council of European Bishops' Conferences (CCEE), Archbishop Gintaras Grušas, comes from Lithuania, and his Vice President, Cardinal Ladislav Nemet, from Serbia. Among the moderators and speakers are also voices from Hungary, the Czech Republic, Romania, and Croatia; Ukraine is also represented in the program. Klara Csiszar, a pastoral theologian from Linz, born in Romania as part of the Hungarian minority, heads the Department of Synodality at the Catholic Private University of Linz and is a member of the CCEE's European Synodality Task Force.

What is the situation in Wels?

The symposium follows three thematic lines. The opening session focuses on baptism and liturgy as the foundations of synodal church life. The second day examines Europe's conflicts and upheavals, including war, polarization, nationalism, migration, digitalization, ecumenism, and catechesis. The third day explores structures, offices, and decision-making processes that can sustainably uphold the equal dignity and shared responsibility of all the baptized.

Among the key voices are the Prague theologian Tomáš Halík, who will give a lecture on “Listening to Europe”; the German Jesuit Christoph Theobald, who works in Paris, on the theology of baptism; and Myriam Wijlens on leadership, mission, and church structures. Conversations “in spirit,” workshops, and fishbowl discussions will connect the lectures with experiences from local churches. Finally, Csiszar and Cardinal Nemet will present the collected insights as the basis for a European “roadmap.”

Before the start of the conference, Cardinal Hollerich, Cardinal Nemet, Bishop Manfred Scheuer of Linz, and Csiszar will address the press on Monday morning in Linz. The focus will be on how local churches can practically implement synodality after the World Synod. The press conference is titled "Cultural Change in the Church? – European Church Leaders Meet in Wels."

The conference is organized by the Department of Synodality of the Catholic Private University of Linz together with the European Task Force for Synodality and under the auspices of the CCEE; the Council of European Bishops' Conferences is an association of the presidents of the Roman Catholic Bishops' Conferences in Europe and covers the entire continent from Iceland to Russia.

From Vatican News (German Original)

We Are Church International calls on the Catholic Church to change its teaching that considers homosexual tendencies to be "objectively disordered".

• Such teaching continues to fuel discrimination and supports legislation such as:
  
  Ghana’s new bill criminalising homosexuality and the promotion of LGBTQ+ activities, which has been publicly endorsed by local Catholic leaders
  
  
• Uganda’s 2023 law imposing the death penalty for certain same-sex acts has been met with silence or complicity

In many countries where LGBTQ+ rights have been established there has been a push back, particularly against trans people. Jesus treated all people as equal – without exception. Therefore it is a gospel imperative for the Church to promote the rights of all persons to enjoy fullness of life.

The Catholic Church should be a world leader calling for equality for LGBTQ+, to help parents accept their LGBTQ+ children as gifts from God equally with their other children.

The Vatican should reverse its instructions to the bishops of the world to work against civil measures that seek to protect the human rights of LGBTQ+ people.

We Are Church International will continue to work and pray for the full equality of all people (women, laity, LGBTQ+ & married persons) in our communities at grassroots levels where real reforms are taking place through listening, understanding and courageous solidarity.

Press contacts:

Colm Holmes, Chair We Are Church International
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Phone: +353 86606 3636

Dr Martha Heizer, Vice-Chair We Are Church International
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Phone: +43 650 4168500

We Are Church International is very disappointed with the Final Report for Study Group 5 on Women which confirms that the Patriarchy has one clear priority: NO ORDINATION FOR WOMEN. Their fear of schism means discrimination against women will continue and we will lose even more women and their gifts from our church!

The long report for Study Group 5 makes no reference to any of the many women who have been serving parish communities without priests as ‘Pastoral Assistants’, or those women with vocations to ordination who have been seeking equality for more than 50 years.

We call on Pope Leo XlV to promote the ordination of women as it is a scandal for our Church to treat women as inferior and subordinate to men, when Jesus continuously broke the law to free women from those oppressive laws. The patriarchal Church structures around the world have led to the physical, sexual and spiritual abuse of women. Our church urgently needs to ensure that all ministries and offices are based on the common dignity of baptism, personal competence and charisms.

We Are Church International will continue to work and pray for the full equality of women in our communities at grassroots levels where real reforms are taking place.

Press contacts:

Colm Holmes, Chair We Are Church International
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Phone: +353 86606 3636

Dr Martha Heizer, Vice-Chair We Are Church International
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Phone: +43 650 4168500

Press Release 5 December 2025: 

We Are Church International is very disappointed that the ordination of Women Deacons has been rejected though not definitively by a commission of 5 men and 5 women. It is shocking that 5 of this commission believe that the masculinity of Christ is an integral part of sacramental identity!

Such commissions can be given a conservative or reformist bias, depending on who is selected. It would have been much better to use the Synodal process including all the people of God to determine if the Holy Spirit sees the equality of women as now long overdue in our Church.

Jesus was male, but he never ever displayed any masculine traits that would demean anyone. Jesus never instituted the priesthood!Would he do so? When he was consistently criticizing the way 'priesthood' was being exercised in his time?He had men and women at his table at the last Passover with his disciples when he commanded all to do what he had done in memory of him viz. washing each other's feet and breaking his body for all.

Many women around the world are already performing the work of ordained priests without ordination even as deacons.They are baptizing, conducting funerals, blessing marriages, and conducting Eucharistic liturgies. They hold communities together in Asia as well as in the West.That this denial of the diaconate to women continues to happen without acknowledging this contribution of women only exhibits the deep-rooted misogyny in the Catholic Church.

In 1975 The Pontifical Biblical Commission on the Ordination of Women confirmed that there was nothing in scripture to exclude women from ordination. And on 26 October 2025 Pope Leo XlV confirmed that the inclusion of women was a cultural issue.But it is time the Church evangelize cultures like Jesus did in his time, when he made a woman the first witness of his resurrection; he broke the cultural taboo of uncleaness when he allowed the woman with the flow of blood to touch him, he spoke to a Samaritan woman and discussed scripture with her.These are some instances only.

We call on Pope Leo XlV to promote the ordination of women as it is a scandal for our Church to treat women as inferior and subordinate to men. This gives a false role model which supports patriarchal structures around the world leading to the physical, sexual and spiritual abuse of women.

We Are Church International will continue to work and pray for the full equality of women in our communities at grassroots levels where real reforms are taking place.

Press contacts:

Colm Holmes, Chair We Are Church International
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Phone: +353 86606 3636

Dr Martha Heizer, Vice-Chair We Are Church International
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Phone: +43 650 4168500

We Are Church International are shocked and disappointed that the ordination of Women has been deleted from the Synod on Synodality 2023-24.

Before the 2023 Synod the ordination of Women as Priests was removed from the agenda, despite the issue having been raised in many countries. So much for listening and parrhesia!

But the ordination of Women as Deacons was assigned to Study Group 5, thus removing this topic from the 2024 Synod.

The Dicastery for Doctrine and Faith were entrusted with responsibility for Study Group 5. Now we learn that the Dicastery for Doctrine and Faith has passed on the issue of Women Deacons to the Second Study Commission on the Female Diaconate – which was set up in 2020 but has not produced any report to date. The Dicastery for Doctrine and Faith was given responsibility for Study Group 5, but has now ejected it back to the 2020 Study Commission! The Dicastery has not given any date by which the 2020 Study Commission will report as they report directly to the Pope!

So the Dicastery has managed to completely delete the important issue of Women Deacons from the Synod!

Study Groups can be given a conservative or reformist bias, depending on who is selected. It would be much better to use the Synodal process to determine if the Holy Spirit sees the equality of women as now overdue in our Church.

In 1975 The Pontifical Biblical Commission on the Ordination of Women confirmed that there was nothing in the gospels to exclude women from ordination. And on 26 October 2025 Pope Leo XlV confirmed that the inclusion of women was a cultural issue. As such it should be included in the Synodal process. We call on Pope Leo XlV to promote the ordination of women as it is a scandal for our Church to treat women as inferior and subordinate to men.

Press contacts:

Colm Holmes, Chair We Are Church International
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Phone: +353 86606 3636

Dr Martha Heizer, Vice-Chair We Are Church International
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Phone: +43 650 4168500