Appeal from We are Church to the European participants of the World Synod 2024 at the preparatory meeting from 29 to 31 August 2024 in Linz

August 2024

The international Catholic reform movement We are Church very much welcomes the fact that voting synod members and theological experts from Europe will be preparing together in Linz/Austria at the end of August 2024 for the second plenary assembly of the World Synod in Rome in October 2024. The European Continental Assembly in February 2023 in Prague/Czech Republic, which We are Church and other reform groups had accompanied, still revealed very clear differences between the local churches and bishops' conferences in their understanding of the church and church practice.

The Roman Catholic world church is currently in an important transitional phase. In contrast to the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), which intended a theological revaluation of the local churches, a centralised understanding of the church was consolidated during the last two pontificates. Pope Francis has revised this in many small steps and led the Church back onto the course of the Council.

The worldwide synodal process initiated by Pope Francis is now pursuing the goal of developing a common vision of the local churches of ministries, charisms, services and other forms of activity in the community of believers, based on the ecclesiology of the People of God of the Second Vatican Council. Due to the long divisions of Europe, this Council was received very differently. This is why theological and cultural exchange is now so important, especially among the churches in Europe.

Responsibility for the local churches

We are Church welcomes the proposal in the preparatory paper (‘Instrumentum laboris’) for the assembly in October 2024 that the local churches ‘should be recognised as ecclesial subjects endowed with doctrinal authority’. In the context of a diverse Church, the ‘valorisation of liturgical, disciplinary, theological and spiritual expressions adapted to the different socio-cultural contexts should be promoted.’ (97 a)

From the perspective of We Are Church, however, it is equally important to ‘develop effective forms and procedures of transparency and accountability that are ... appropriate to the diversity of contexts’ (78). Therefore, the people of God, the people of the church, must be involved in a representative manner not only in decision making, but also in the final decision. A synodal church requires changes in the structures in which women in particular can participate in decision-making on an equal footing, not just in consultation.

Questions for the future of the church

The non-transparent outsourcing of individual issues to ten study groups, which resulted from the first assembly of the World Synod in Rome in October 2023, must not mean a delay in urgently needed reform steps. Rather, it is to be hoped that the so-called ‘women's question’ in particular will be discussed openly, as it was at the synod in October 2023. Women must no longer be denied ordination! Equal rights for women and queer people are crucial for the credibility of the church.

In the struggle for the future of the church, pastoral and structural issues should no longer be played off against each other! The problematic church structures that have led to abuse and loss of trust must be permanently corrected! As important as the basic line of evangelisation laid down by Pope Francis is, a real reappraisal of sexualised and spiritual violence is an essential element of evangelisation! The Gospel takes sides with the disenfranchised, the maltreated and the wounded. Without this perspective, any attempt at evangelisation will come to nothing.

Model for democracies

In a time of political upheaval, in which authority, especially authority from above, is no longer readily accepted, church synodality could also be a good model for democracies. We are Church supports Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, Relator of the World Synod, in his statement: ‘Yes, we don't just need one theology of synodality, we need different theologies of synodality. We need reflection so that the Church of God can move forward in time and recognise the signs of the times in our world."

Background

European synod participants meet in Linz at the end of August. The meeting from 29 to 31 August 2024 at the Faculty of Theology of the Catholic Private University (KU) Linz will be hosted by the local pastoral theologian and Dean Prof. Klara Csiszar.

Other members of the preparatory group are the Vice-President of the Council of the Bishops' Conferences of Europe (CCEE), Archbishop Ladislav Nemet from Belgrade, as well as the synod experts Prof Christoph Theobald (Paris) and Prof Myriam Wijlens (Erfurt). The meeting will be accompanied spiritually by Prof Tomas Halik (Prague).

Similar preparatory meetings prior to the second plenary assembly of the World Synod from 2 to 27 October 2024 in Rome have also taken place on other continents.

Press contact:

Colm Holmes, chair We are Church International, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (Ireland)

Martha Heizer, vice-chair We are Church International, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (Austria)

Christian Weisner, We are Church, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (Germany)

Mauro Castagnaro, Noi siamo Chiesa, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (Italy)

Alicja Baranowska, Women's Ordination Worldwide, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (Poland)

Issued by the Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research

(The below is a copy of the letter sent to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith)

Dear Monsignor Armando Matteo,

We are writing as leaders of worldwide associations of Catholics deeply committed to the implementation of synodality throughout the Catholic Church, to ask for the publication of the criteria and procedure of selection, as well as the names of the members, of Study Group 5 on “Some theological and canonical issues around specific ministerial forms”.

At the end of the Press Conference of 09/07/2024 which presented the Instrumentum laboris for the October 2024 session of the Synod on Synodality, the names were published of the members of fourteen of the fifteen study groups which will investigate some of the issues which emerged during the October 2023 Synod gathering.

The only study group whose names were not and have not so far been published is the above mentioned Study Group 5 which deals, among other things, with the possibility of restoring the diaconate for women.

Instead, the press release specified that that study group has been entrusted entirely to the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), “according to the procedures established in its own Rules of Procedure with a view to the publication of an appropriate document”.

What that statement omits is that those Rules of Procedure -presumably the Regolamento proprio della Congregazione per la Dottrina della Fede (Regolamento proprio) dated October 1995 – have never been published: they are to this day still secret.

Both past experience and what we know from other published canonical rules pertaining to the DDF, do not bode well for transparency. And since it has been deemed necessary to examine the question of women’s inclusion in such an environment of secrecy, we believe that this is a breach of your obligations to Catholic constituents who have the right to know why women continue to be excluded and deserve to have full disclosure of the discussions taking place.

The publicly accessible Rules of Procedure of the DDF specifically for doctrinal examinations have long been criticised for their disregard of the fundamental right to, and basic requirements of, a fair trial as set out in international law (UDHR Arts. 8-11, complemented by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights [ICCPR, 1966] Art. 14).

Among the infringements most relevant to present purposes are the fact that proceedings of all doctrinal examinations are to be closed to the public (in breach of UDHR Art. 10-11 which mandates proceedings to be public) and, more crucially still, there is no requirement that either the prosecution or any external expert be independent from the judges: their selection is left entirely at the discretion of members of the DDF. It appears that the same procedure is now being applied to Study Group 5, with the DDF given full discretion to hand-pick its members in secrecy, without making them public.

Similarly, the past record of the DDF does not inspire confidence. Since 2016, the DDF has hand-picked and overseen three successive study groups on the subject of women deacons: every time, their members were made public, although – crucially – they were chosen entirely by and at the discretion of the DDF, without providing any rationale or criteria for their selection, and their reports have been kept secret.

To this day, the findings, arguments and reasoning of those three commissions have not been made public. Again, it is not superfluous to recall that the same happened for two earlier study commissions on women deacons overseen by the then Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in 1973 and 1992–97. In short, of the six such pontifical study commissions on women deacons since 1973, only one has published its findings.

To sum up: the recently published Instrumentum laboris states in its introduction that “These study groups, made up of pastors and experts from all continents, use a synodal working method” (emphasis added).

However, the DDF is still keeping secret:

1. the selection procedure (including the selection criteria) of the members,
2. the names of the members themselves, and
3. the final reports or, if no agreed statement was reached, the various contributions informing the work of the previous commissions,

This is deeply disrespectful to the People of God and makes a mockery of synodality. According to the Instrumentum laboris 2 (76), “If the synodal Church wants to be welcoming, then accountability and transparency must be at the core of its action at all levels, not only at the level of authority…those in positions of authority must be concerned with how the Church respects the dignity of the human person, for example, regarding the working conditions within its institutions.”

The issue of the role of women in ministry, including ordained ministry, is absolutely crucial to faithfulness to the gospel and the common good of the church, and its examination needs to be as rigorous and independent as possible.

Accordingly, we ask the DDF:

1. to publish as soon as possible the selection criteria and procedure, as well as the names of the members of Study Group 5;
2. to ensure that their findings are made public as soon as they are available; and
3. to start an open worldwide consultation of Catholics, including Catholic academic and professional associations, on reforming its own regulations for selecting external experts, with the goal of bringing it up to the best standards of openness and transparency adopted by civil society.

As a recent example, the “Proposed Constitution for the Catholic Church” coordinated by the Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research and signed by more than sixty canon lawyers, bible scholars, church historians, and theologians, suggested that external expert advisors:

“shall be selected via an open and transparent peer-review process, whose criteria for selection must include relevant expertise, lack of conflict of interests, independence from church representatives and church leaders, and good standing within the relevant scientific community” (Art. 72).

Catholics have a fundamental right to education and to information, particularly concerning an issue, such as that of the role of women in ministry, of such import for the common good of the church. Such an inalienable right, based on their dignity, cannot be set aside with the excuse that to make public the debate on contentious theological issues could “scandalise” some of them.

We take this occasion to express our consideration and esteem in Christ.

Dr Luca Badini Confaloneri, Academic Director, Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research

Co-signatories:

Catholic Church Reform International

Catholic Women’s Council

Catholic Women’s Ordination

Root & Branch Community for Reform (UK and International)

Spirit Unbounded

We are Church International

Women’s Ordination Worldwide

Contact:

Miriam Duignan (Executive Director): T +44 7970 926910 E This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Dr. Luca Badini Confalonieri (Academic Director): T: + 44 7446 283699 E This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

We Are Church International (WAC) is very disappointed that women deacons are not to be on the official agenda for the Second Session of the Synod.

WAC is very disappointed that so many important issues have been taken out of the Synod agenda and given to 16 Study Groups (made up 74% of clerics) which will only report after the Synod has ended in 2025.

WAC welcomes the statement that the most effective way to promote a Synodal Church is the participation of all in decision making and taking processes. But we fear that ignoring the fact that most people around the world did not participate in the Synodal process due to clericalism will remain a major stumbling block.

WAC welcomes the statement that adopting a Synodal style enables us to overcome the idea that all churches must necessarily move at the same pace on every issue.

WAC calls on the Synod participants to formulate strong proposals for the full equality of women.

WAC calls on the Synod participants to formulate strong proposals to allow local churches the freedom to reform issues of great importance to their local cultural and social situations.

Synodality will only be credible if it leads to real reforms in 2025.

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

Dear Brother Francis,

The exclusion of women from Church ordination (canon 1024); Church governance (cc.129 and 274§1), and from preaching the homily (c.767§1) are discriminatory, contrary to Jesus’ inclusion of all, and deprives the Church of the benefits of gender diversity and balance in leadership.

All have received the same Baptism, the Same Spirit, and the Same Calling. The exclusion of women to respond to that Calling is hurtful to women’s dignity and unacceptable in the 21 st century.

You have rightly called the Church to Walk together in Communion, Participation and Mission However if women continue to be kept in an infantile position, then women can never hope to be part of a synodal Church where they are in communion, participating equally in mission. A synodal Church requires change in the structures where women participate equally in decision taking, not just in decision making processes.

We understand that the topic ‘women deacons’ has been assigned to one of the 10 study groups reporting in 2025. We call for transparency about the synod working groups, their members, and their mandates. We are aware of the abundance of study, research, history etc., that supports the restoration of women deacons, and therefore wonder why you continue to stall on this issue.

The role of women is key to the synodal process and should be discussed as a whole and not portioned out into women deacons, women in decision making, women needing care, etc. To ignore the question of women’s equality which means their access to ordination to the priesthood, is to exclude women from synodality and ignore the voice of the ‘sensus fidei’ of the people of God.

Why do we ask this?

• Jesus treated women as equals and had many women disciples
• The “natural inferiority” of women is today totally unacceptable
• There is worldwide support for women to be ordained
• The Pontifical Biblical Commission (1976) found nothing in scripture preventing the ordination of women
• The blunt “No” in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (1994) is based on power and not on scripture

We place our request before you, Pope Francis as it is you who has set out a synodal church which "walks together", listens and dialogues; and therefore, invites everyone to "speak with courage and candour" (preparatory document p. 20). It is in this spirit that we place our appeal for due consideration of women’s position of full equality in the Church to be kept on the table for the Synod of 2024.

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

Followed by Q & A

ZOOM 20.00 – 21.30hrs CET

Tuesday 11th of June 2024

Her talk will be followed by Q & A

Helena Jeppesen-Spuhler is a Voting participant from Switzerland of the Synod 2023 & 2024. For more than 20 years she has worked for the Swiss International Charity Fastenaktion. With responsibility for the Laos and Philippines country programs her understanding of development work cooperation is marked by her genuine interest in people, in interreligious and intercultural dialog, in gender equality and for indigenous and human rights. She has a special talent for working in networks. She is a member of the Swiss Catholic Alliance for Equal Dignity. In 2019 she accompanied the Amazon Synod. In February 2023 she was a delegate for Switzerland at the European Continental Synodal in Prague. And in October 2023 she was among the select group of 54 women who were the first ever Voting Women Members of the Global Bishops Synod!

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