We Are Church International welcomes the process leading to the ecclesiastical assembly in 2028 in Rome as set out in the Press Release by Cardinal Mario Grech dated 15 March 2025. This places the focus on Local Churches to implement Synodality in their different contexts and introducing concrete reforms.

In particular the Local Churches must now implement structures that ensure that the entire community are involved in all essential decisions – and not just in an advisory capacity. These structures must show clearly how lay people and particularly women, who all have the same baptismal dignity as clerics, will share equality in decision taking and administering the church.

We are Church International calls for transparent processes to be adopted for the selection of lay participants at assemblies and synods. Clerics should be responsible for selecting clerical representatives and Lay people should be responsible for selecting lay representatives.

We are Church International calls for the decisions of the ecclesial assembly to have deliberative power.

We are Church International notes that the June 2025 deadline will not be met by all the Study groups. Regarding the ordination of women to ministries we see this as a continuation of many decades of discrimination against women, always searching for new excuses why only men are called to serve, when Jesus clearly called women and 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

We Are Church International are pleased that Pope Francis is no longer in danger of death and continue to call for prayers for his speedy recovery. We can only hope that Francis, with his incredible energy and charisma, can accompany the renewal process of the Roman Catholic world church for as long as possible. Francis has opened the door for many things that can and must be done now; but there is still much to be done.
 
On the occasion of the twelfth anniversary of the election of Pope Francis on 13 March 2013, We Are Church International once again appeals to the entire church community and to church leadership at all levels, to remain faithful to the urgently needed reform course initiated by Francis and confirmed by the World Synod.
 
In the twelve years of his pontificate, Pope Francis has initiated a radical reorientation of the Roman Catholic Church, both internally and externally, as he announced in his speech before the conclave. This is why he was elected by the cardinals. But the crisis in the Church is far from over. And there is strong resistance to Pope Francis' reform course, which was previously unimaginable. Unfortunately, many bishops have not yet followed him. But the hot topics must be addressed, and this is especially true with regard to real equality for women in the Church.
 
We are Church International and the Catholic Women's Council have therefore launched a petition "Equality in the Catholic Church" for the Holy Year 2025. The church only has a future if everyone reorients themselves together towards the liberating message of the Kingdom of God.
 
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
W  www.we-are-church.org

Paragraph 94 of the Synod Final document states: "Without concrete changes in the short term, the vision of a synodal Church will not be credible".

100 days after the Synod on Synodality ended the only enduring legacy is the image of the Round Tables which signal listening. But missing is any process to convert all the listening into meaningful reforms to bring our church back in line with the teachings of Jesus.

The patriarchal monarchy has reasserted its total control of all decision making by taking all important issues away from the Synod and passing them to Study Groups. These Study groups were asked to report back in June 2025. We fear they will not report back to the Synod. Who will they report back to? Will their reports be made public? Or will further study be required to kick any reforms much further down the road?

• We call for the entire church community to be involved in all essential decisions and not only in an advisory capacity.
• We call for the results of the ten working groups which the Pope has outsourced from the World Synod to be published transparently before the end of 2025 and to be dealt with in a synodal manner, not only by the hierarchy.
• We call for Canon Law to be updated to reflect a truly Synodal Church
• We call for all dioceses and parishes to implement the strong recommendations of the synod regarding Pastoral and Finance Councils

In some countries there is work underway to set up Diocesan and Parish Pastoral Councils (DPC’s and PPC’s) – but they must not remain under the absolute control of the bishop or parish priest. In other countries even altar girls have been banned.

The urgently needed reforms in our church will come from small Christian communities and local churches and not from Rome.

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

Despite high initial hopes for the Synodal process, it reverted back to the patriarchal Father-knows-best hierarchical model. There is no agreed process for the selection and participation of laity and in particular women at future Synods.

Taking the 10 Study topics out of the Synod and excluding the discussion of women in ordained ministries totally undermined the Synodal Process.

The urgently needed reforms in our church will come from local communities and churches and not from Rome. The decentralisation proposals in the final Synod document may facilitate these reforms.

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 - Germany at the conclusion of the World Synod

Post release: We are Church - Germany welcomes Pope Francis' statement: ‘... For this reason, I do not intend to publish a ‘post-synodal apostolic exhortation’ ... in the light of what has emerged from the synodal path, there are and will be decisions that need to be taken.’ > Wording: Pope's final address to the synod

Press release, Rome/Munich, 26 October 2024

We are Church - Germany draws a mixed conclusion from the conclusion of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, on whose final document will be voted today, and calls for genuine and concrete synodality at all levels of the church.

With the synodal process with worldwide participation, including at the grassroots level of the church, Pope Francis has made a church-historical turnaround that builds on the baptismal dignity of all, will have a long-term effect and be irreversible. But even at this second session, it has not yet been possible to resolve the clear contradiction between the early Christian message of the equality of all believers (‘Equality’) and the current dogmatically entrenched church power structure. This applies particularly to the exclusion of women, who had a central role in the early church, from all ordained ministries.

Unresolved ‘women's issue’ shows the power problem of the men's church

The worldwide exposure of the spiritual and sexual abuse of power and its cover-up has led the Catholic Church into a deep existential crisis. However, the Roman Catholic Church is also in a constitutional crisis because, after the Second Vatican Council, the right of the episcopate was overemphasised and the right of the people of the church was underemphasised and women's rights are not recognised. The Catholic Church's traditional Christian view of humanity is no longer convincing either. It will not be enough to strengthen the role of women only within the existing canon law if only men continue to define the role of women.

The highly non-transparent approach of the Pope and the new Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, to the ‘women's issue’ is unsynodal and has lost a great deal of trust, but has also triggered strong opposition. The continuing discrimination against women shows how little respect there is for the baptismal dignity of women and how the traditional, male-dominated power structures are being held on to instead. The legacies of the previous Popes, ‘Inter Insignores’ (1976), ‘Mulieris dignitatem’ (1988) and ‘Ordinatio Sacerdotalis’ (1994), still weigh heavily on the Church today.

From now on, synodality must be practised in a concrete way at all levels of the Church!

For the synod members, the two assemblies in Rome were an intensive learning process, which must now be courageously implemented in Rome and in the individual local churches and later also evaluated.

From now on, the investigation and prevention of sexualised violence must be made a ‘matter for the boss’ everywhere.

From now on, the churchgoers are to be responsibly involved in all essential decisions at the respective levels. Transparency and accountability apply not only to the Pope, but to all believers.

From now on, synodal structures are to be created at the country and continental level, as is already successfully practised in Latin America and Asia. Here, Europe in particular has a lot of catching up to do.

From now on, decentralised solutions are to be allowed in all pastoral matters that correspond to the respective cultural context and are indispensable for an inculturation of the faith.

From now on, the Roman study groups must incorporate the current state of theological research in a transparent manner and include current pastoral requirements.

From now on, the synodal path in Germany, which has been given a tailwind by the deliberations in Rome, must be continued unabated.

From now on, the diaconal work of the church in following Jesus must be brought to the centre. This concerns everyone, men and women.

From now on, the church must not only concern itself with itself. It must change because it has a mission in the world (cf. Council Decree ‘Gaudium et Spes’).

Second Council session on 16 November 2024 in Stuttgart

We Are Church - Germany has critically followed the synodal path in Germany as well as the worldwide synodal process from the beginning. We Are Church - Germany sees it as a success that the reform issues formulated in Austria after the 1995 abuse scandal in Vienna around Cardinal Hans Hermann Groër – participation, women's ministries, exemption of celibacy and sex education – are now finally being openly discussed in Germany and Rome.