We Are Church International

We Are Church International is an international movement founded in Rome in 1996 and registered under French law,^[1] which, by its own description, aims to support the renewal of the Catholic Church on the basis of the teachings of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) "and the theological spirit developed from it".^[1]

The movement began during the Church Referendum in Austria in 1995, in reaction to the paedophilia scandal around Vienna's Cardinal Groer.^[2][3] We are Church is represented in more than twenty countries on all continents and networks world-wide with similar-minded reform groups.

As international studies of renowned religion sociologists confirm, We are Church as a reform movement within the Church represents the "voice of the people in the pews" and has demonstrated this in several Shadow Synods in Rome. We Are Church has proposed radical changes on various doctrinal and disciplinary points in Roman Catholicism, including the abolition of mandatory priestly celibacy, female ordination, openness to contraception, abortion, assisted suicide, same-sex parenting, and the democratization of church structures, with a direct decision-making role for the laity.^[4]

It has described Hans Küng as the spiritual father of initiatives that led to the founding of We Are Church.^[5]

The association is composed of groups in various countries and does not accept individual members. A list of its national Media Contacts, with e-mail addresses and in some cases telephone numbers, is given on its website.^[6]

Proclaimed in Rome in 12 October 1997, the collaborative developed a manifesto in 1997 which recalled the convening of the Second Vatican Council by Pope John XXIII and outlined five "demands" which focussed on equality within the Catholic Church.^[7]

El 4 de junio de 2008, en respuesta a un decreto de la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe que declaraba sujeto a excomunión , cuyo levantamiento estaba reservado a la Santa Sede, a cualquiera que intentara conferir las órdenes sagradas a una mujer, ^{[ 8 ]} el movimiento internacional emitió una declaración bajo el título: «Jesucristo no ordenó a hombres ni a mujeres al sacerdocio ministerial, sino para cuidarse y nutrirse mutuamente como hermanos y hermanas». ^{[ 9 ]} En julio del mismo año, felicitó a la « Iglesia Anglicana » por su intención de consagrar mujeres como obispos y declaró su pesar por «la actitud anticristiana del estamento vaticano que, una vez más, usurpando su misión, ha criticado a nuestros hermanos y hermanas anglicanos por la decisión». ^{[ 10 ]}

En 2017 la asociación apoyó la bendición de matrimonios entre personas del mismo sexo . ^{[ 11 ]}

El 22 de marzo de 2014, el Tiroler Tageszeitung publicó una entrevista con Martha Heizer, presidenta y cofundadora del movimiento internacional, y su esposo, en la que declararon que se les había informado que, de acuerdo con el canon 1378 §2, ^{[ 12 ]} estaban excomulgados a causa de sus "celebraciones eucarísticas privadas" sin sacerdote. ^{[ 13 ] [ 14 ]}

• Iglesia 2011
• Asociación de Sacerdotes Católicos - una asociación voluntaria de clérigos católicos en Irlanda
• Movimiento Ocho de Mayo : un movimiento similar en los Países Bajos que se disolvió en 2003.

• Sitio web oficial