This statement from We Are Church (Germany) is also supported by We Are Church in Austria, France, Ireland, The Netherlands, Spain and the United States of America.
We are Church (Germany) welcomes the candidacy of Anne Soupa as successor to Cardinal Barbarin for the Diocese of Lyon.
The French theologian and journalist Anne Soupa took an undoubtedly unusual step when she announced her candidacy for the Bishopric of Lyon. Unusual in two respects: On the one hand, in the Catholic Church, bishops do not emerge from a public candidacy, but are appointed in Rome according to a secret procedure. On the other hand, it is considered impossible for a woman to be at the head of a diocese and lead it. The bishops see themselves as successors of the apostles. But why should there not be a female bishop as successor of the apostle of the apostles, Mary of Magdala, who was given the commission to proclaim the resurrection by Christ himself?
In this Pentecostal time, marked by the coronavirus, it is a spiritually inspired sign that the old certainties must also give way in the Church to new insights and developments. Just as the experience of Pentecost drove the frightened and discouraged apostles out of their closed attic and breathed new energy, new spirit and new language into them, so also today the call for renewal and reorientation should burst open the encrustations of the hierarchy and open ways for change.
Pressekontakt Wir sind Kirche-Bundesteam:
Sigrid Grabmeier, Tel. 170-8 62 62 90, E-mail:
Magnus Lux, Tel. 0176-41 70 77 25, E-Mail:
Christian Weisner, Tel. 0172-5 18 40 82, E-Mail:
Petition, arising in France, supporting Anne Soupa's candidacy
The Synodal Path is a joint project of the German Bishops’ Conference and the official lay organisation “Central Committee of German Catholics“.