Spirit Unbounded, a global community of Catholic reform and other Christian and ecumenical networks that share a vision of a just and inclusive church, presents “Human Rights in the Catholic Church,” a weeklong event coinciding with the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in Rome in October.

The Spirit Unbounded event will take place from 8–14 October 2023 and will feature both live and prerecorded digital presentations. Presentations from 8–12 October will be streamed online, with live and prerecorded presentations on 13–14 October. Gathering spaces in Bristol (UK) and Rome will allow people to attend the event in person.

Keynote speakers Sr. Joan Chittister (USA), Dr. Mary McAleese (Ireland), and Steven Newcomb (Shawnee-Lenape author and scholar) head an expanding international roster with over 70 speakers to date. Presenters include activists, artists, and storytellers alongside academics and theologians. Spirit Unbounded is aiming to represent the diversity of the global church at the event, particularly Indigenous communities and presenters from Central and South America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Speakers will address the theme of human rights in the Catholic Church, particularly how the church can move beyond clericalism to better model human rights both within and outside the institution.

Conceived as having “the ambience of a festival rather than a conference,” the event will highlight spiritual, theological, practical, doctrinal, and creative ways to reimagine authority and ministry, re-think ethical questions through the primacy of conscience, and renew a commitment to care for our neighbor and our environment. By linking the principles of justice, equality, and mercy to concrete actions, the event will enhance the synodal journey toward a more Christ-centered church. Additionally, it will offer participants from all over the world an opportunity to connect, share their hopes, and expand a network of reform-minded organizations that will endure beyond the official close of the Synod in 2024.

For all event information, including ticketing for both digital and in-person events and accommodation packages, please see the Spirit Unbounded event page here.

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Additional Resources

1. Spirit Unbounded website: https://spiritunbounded.org

2. Event page: https://spiritunbounded.org/event

3. List of confirmed speakers as of 26 June 2023: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1b0QGyKO9bMMBaWuyj47GTX2Gcbln9hM3/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=110777516573974247447&rtpof=true&sd=true

4. Direct link to event ticketing: https://www.gr8events.ie/sales/index.php?event=1361

5. Mailing list signup: https://spiritunbounded.org/subscribe

Social Media

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2. Twitter: https://twitter.com/SpiritUnbounded

3. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spiritunbounded_itl/

Contact Information

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2. General inquiries: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

We Are Church International sees the Instrumentum Laboris as a further important step on the path of necessary renewal initiated by Pope Francis.

It is to be hoped that the extensive catalogue of over 100 questions points the difficult way from a hierarchical towards a truly inclusive church, which can be understood and lived in the many different cultures. We seek a church as a community of hope and solidarity, which can rightly refer to the message of Jesus of Nazareth, but which is also open to exchange and cooperation with other religious communities for the benefit of all humanity.

Above all, We Are Church International appeals to the bishops to courageously help shape this unprecedented and ambitious synodal path of Pope Francis. For the path now taken, which includes the entire people of God, corresponds to the communio-theology of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65).

With the participation of ten religious and at least seventy non-bishops from the worldwide people of the Church, the Synodal Assembly provides for a tentative expansion of voting rights and decisions on the future of the Church, which must be followed by further steps.

We Are Church International considers it essential to concretely address our 5 goals:

• Equality for all the baptised in new structures
• All ministries and leadership roles open to women
• All ministries and leadership roles open to married people
• A positive attitude to sexuality
• A welcome for all

Instrumentum Laboris

"Exclusion of women from ordination cannot be justified biblically".We are Church Germany Press Release on the ordination of presbyters in Cologne on 16 June 2023

On this year's Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Friday 16 June 2023, Archbishop Rainer Maria Cardinal Woelki of Cologne will ordain six deacons as presbyters in Cologne Cathedral. This demonstrates once again, without any biblical basis, that women are being denied ordination to the presbyterate solely for the sake of clerical male power.

The Church People's Movement We Are Church recalls the ordination of seven women presbyters 21 years ago on 29 June 2002, the feast of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, a date on which many ordinations usually take place.

While Pope John XXIII (1958-1963) in his encyclicals "Mater et magistra" (15 May 1961) and "Pacem in terris" (11 April 1963) spoke out for the equal human rights also of women in all spheres, Pope John Paul II in his letter "Ordinatio Sacerdotalis" (22 May 1994) attempted to establish the prohibition of women's ordination for all time and thus gave his successors a heavy burden.

We are Church welcomes the fact that despite this ban, the discussion about the renewal of the presbyterial ministry and its opening to women has not ceased but has intensified and has now also been underpinned with good theological arguments at the Synodal Path in Germany. In the meantime, more and more bishops in Germany and worldwide no longer consider the ordination of women to be impossible.

For it is and remains a scandal that the Roman Catholic Church still denies women ordination for leadership ministry. This fundamental degradation of women, which cannot be justified biblically and theologically, poses the danger that the Church will very soon no longer be able to fulfil its pastoral mission.

Preview of the year 2040: reality or still a vision?

Compulsory celibacy for secular clergy has been abolished. Four of the six deacons ordained in 2023 are married - two of them long-time happy fathers. In an interview, the new pastor of Unkel emphasises that his wife is already a deacon and is currently preparing for ordination to the presbyterium. They write their sermons together, which are very appealing to people.

The shortage of presbyters is a thing of the past and the understanding of ministry has changed. Now competent laymen and laywomen have taken over parish leadership and administration. Presbyters, deacons and deaconesses can finally concentrate on their core tasks: Pastoral care, church services and life-accompanying chapels. This has made it possible to guarantee sufficient "supply" everywhere again; long journeys to Mass are a thing of the past.

The chaos caused by the areas of mission decreed from above with a minimal supply of presbyters (one presbyter for nine and more parishes, which overtaxed everyone) is, thank God, a thing of the past. Overall, the role of the laity has been enhanced, as the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) wanted. They have more say at all levels, which has led to an upswing in congregational life. Joint communion celebrations with the Protestant Church are still not officially "allowed", but are celebrated almost everywhere. Divorced, remarried or homosexual people are no longer excluded from communion.

Decisive for the smashing of the argument that Jesus only called men were the continuous protests of many Christians and also of We are Church and Maria 2.0. Their argument: The demand for human and women's rights, which Pope John XXIII started with, is already manifested in the Bible (Genesis 1, 27): God created man in his image... as male and female he created them!

We are Church press contact:

Georg Mollberg (We are Church in the Archdiocese of Cologne).
Tel: 02224 3960, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Christian Weisner (We are Church national team)
Tel: 0172 5184082, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Success for We Are Church request

WE ARE CHURCH warmly welcomes the decision by Pope Francis to include 80 non-bishops of which 40 are women with full voting rights at the upcoming Synods.

This is something that WE ARE CHURCH has long campaigned for. We had written to Cardinal Grech and Cardinal Hollerich earlier this year and we are delighted that Pope Francis has responded positively.

It is a historic first step towards a truly Synodal church with all the people of God involved in making decisions about issues which affect all. We see this as an important first step towards achieving full equality for women in the Catholic Church and the hope that in the near future lay people can be represented in Church Synods by means of participative and democratic procedures.

 We Are Church is supporting "Discipleship of Equals" organised by Spirit Unbounded in Rome 13 - 14 October 2023.

Attached is the Spirit Unbounded Press Release of two keynote speakers.

Colm Holmes Chair, We Are Church International
E This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
M +353 86 606 3636

PRESS RELEASE

Ordinary Catholics to be offered an inspirational balance to the clerical, male-dominated XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October 2023

Spirit Unbounded, the new international network for reform-minded Christians, is delighted to announce the two keynote speakers for the event 8-14 October 2023 (online only 8-12). They are Joan Chittister from the USA and Mary McAleese from Ireland.

The Discipleship of Equals will be held in Rome, Bristol & online globally to witness to the complexities of life for Catholics today, to voice responses to the synod and to showcase speakers for an Emerging Church looking to the future.

Sr Joan Chittister, OSB, is one of the most influential religious and social leaders of our time. For over 50 years she has passionately advocated on behalf of peace, human rights, women’s issues, and monastic and church renewal.

Sr. Joan Chittister is a much sought-after international speaker, she is also a best-selling author of more than 60 books, hundreds of articles, and an online column for the National Catholic Reporter

 “Chittister has earned her place as one of the illuminators of our age." —Chicago Tribune

Dr Mary McAleese was two term President of Ireland from 1997 to 2011. The theme of her presidency was Building Bridges and working for peace and reconciliation. She is a leading critic of Catholic Church teaching on among other things, women, homosexuality, Church members’ human rights, children’s rights, corporal punishment, church governance and episcopal accountability. Broadcaster and academic lawyer, she has a licentiate and doctorate in Canon Law. 

“No synodality without freedom of speech” - Mary McAleese to Root & Branch lay-led synod September 2021 [YouTube recording]

Other speakers for the week-long hybrid event Discipleship of Equals have yet to be decided. Consultations regarding content are to be held with key reform groups in the next few weeks. The culmination of The Discipleship of Equals event on Friday 13 and Saturday 14 October 2023 will be delivered in a hybrid format having both an ’in person’ presence in Rome and Bristol, and an online presence globally. In this way cost and environmental concerns need not be barriers to attendance

Spirit Unbounded spokesperson, Brian Devlin, said: ‘Pope Francis has raised expectations with his Synodal Journey. The Discipleship of Equals will focus on ways for ordinary Catholics to contribute their Spirit-given talents towards building a beatitudinal Church where ALL are equal, grounded in the “sensus fidelium” – consent of the faithful.

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Editor’s Notes:

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Dr. Mary McAleese was the first President of Ireland (1997-2011) to come from Northern Ireland where she and her family experienced first-hand the sectarian violence of The Troubles. The theme of her presidency was Building Bridges and her work for peace and reconciliation culminated in the historic state visit to Ireland by H.M. Queen Elizabeth II in May 2011. She is a broadcaster, academic lawyer and has a licentiate and doctorate in Canon Law from the Pontifical Gregorian University. She was formerly Reid Professor of Criminal Law, Criminology and Penology in Trinity College, Director of the Institute of Professional Legal Studies at Queen’s University, Belfast, the first female Pro-Vice-Chancellor at Queens and Professor of Children, Law and Religion, University of Glasgow. She is current Chancellor of Trinity College Dublin, Chair of the Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion at the University of Notre Dame and Patron of the Von Hugel Institute for Critical Catholic Enquiry at St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge University. She was a founder member of the Ireland’s Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform and played a significant role in the successful 2015 same-sex marriage referendum campaign. She is the author of many Catholic Church related articles and books including “Quo Vadis: Collegiality in the Code of Canon Law” (2013) and the groundbreaking work Children’s Rights and Obligations in Catholic Church Canon Law (Brill 2019). She was winner of the Alfons Auer Prize (2019) awarded by the University of Tubingen’s Faculty of Catholic Theology and was recently awarded (2022) an Honorary Doctorate by the Faculty of Catholic Theology at the University of Lucerne. She is a mother and grandmother, married to Martin since 1976.