News and Media Releases

January 17, 2018.

We Are Church International, a coalition of 22 Catholic reform organizations from six continents, is calling on Pope Francis to immediately reauthorize the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. This Commission, which oversees the Church’s efforts to ensure the safety of children, has been suspended due to the Pope’s failure to reauthorize it after its original three-year commission expired.

Sigrid Grabmeier, Chair of We Are Church International, said, “It is crucially important for the good of the entire Church that the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors be reinstated right away. We just saw Pope Francis apologize to survivors of clerical sexual abuse during his travels in Chile. Allowing the Commission to lapse undermines the sincerity of his words, and makes it seem that the protection of children is a low priority for our Church. The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors also has a critical role in ensuring that bishops and cardinals who are guilty of covering up and facilitating clerical abuse are brought to justice. Catholics throughout the world are deeply committed to ensuring that our children are protected from sexual abuse and other dangers. We need our Church officials to take quick action to correct this lapse in the Commission’s operations.”

We Are Church International has repeatedly called for a clear focus on addressing the issue of clerical sexual abuse and the protection of abusers by bishops in many countries, and by the Vatican. Rectifying these sins and providing appropriate care and compensation to the survivors of this abuse and their families, as well as holding those complicit in these cases accountable, are necessary steps for our Church to regain its moral authority. The well-being of children must always be our church’s highest priority. Reinstating the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and ensuring it has the resources and Papal support needed to accomplish its goals are key steps in reflecting this value.

We Are Church International (WACI) founded in Rome in 1996, is a global coalition of national church reform groups. It is committed to the renewal of the Roman Catholic Church based on the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and the theological spirit developed from it.

October 28, 2017. As the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation is marked on October 31, 2017, a leading international Catholic organization says major reforms are still needed within the Church.

We Are Church International is calling on its members in 21 countries around the globe to mark Reformation Day by posting flyers addressing areas where changes are needed in the Catholic Church on church doors, or taking photos of themselves with the posters in front of their local parish churches between 29-31 October. The posters outline calls for the Church to implement:

•     Democratic Structures
•     Women Priests
•     Justice not Canon Law
•     Married Priests
•     Welcome for all

“Half a millennium later, we Catholics owe a great debt to Martin Luther and to our Protestant kin,” said Sigrid Grabmeier, Chair of We Are Church International.  “They dared to speak out about ways in which our Church can be better followers of Christ. We try to carry on their tradition while remaining within the Catholic Communion.”

Grabmeier continued, “Our Church still has much to improve upon. On the 500th anniversary of the 95 Theses, we continue our call for our Church to be more accountable and to institute more democratic structures, to permit women and married people whom God has called to serve as priests, to prioritize justice rather than dogma and law, and to be a place that welcomes and affirms all people.  We believe these changes are absolutely necessary for the Catholic Church to live out its mission in the world effectively. We remain committed to work towards seeing these goals fulfilled.”

Contact: Marianne Duddy-Burke, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., +1 617-669-7810

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We Are Church International (IMWAC) founded in Rome in 1996, is a global coalition of national church reform groups. It is committed to the renewal of the Roman Catholic Church based on the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and the theological spirit developed from it.

We are asking our members to organise vigils outside their local cathedrals and churches on Sunday the 29th of October 2017.

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Images from Austria Belgium Brazil Chile England Germany Ireland Netherlands N. Ireland Norway Pakistan Spain USA Vatican

1. The attached poster has a simplified list of WAC’s 5 aims, which all WAC Groups can use to make into posters. Each group to suit their culture can adapt the wording and language. Please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for an editable copy in Microsoft Word.

2.We ask all WAC groups to organize their members to display these posters outside churches onSunday the 29thof October 2017. You might make some larger prints of the poster. And you might make photocopies of the poster to hand out. The vigil should only be for one hour - maybe as people arrive or leave the main mass?

3. Please arrange to take photos outside each church and publish the photos on your own websites / social media and also send them to WAC International to publish on websites and social media. Even ONE person with the Poster can be photographed. Please identify the churches when you send the photos. PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT YOUR MEMBERS ARE HAPPY TO HAVE THEIR PHOTOS PUBLISHED.

4.Our aim is to have photographs from at least 500 different locations around the world.

5.And another aim is to have photographs from all 6 continents.

6. Any questions? Please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Reports in the media and national statements

CAMINHO PRA CASA

Kairós Nós Também Somos Igreja

Comunità cristiane di base e Noi Siamo Chiesa : una comune riflessione sull’anno luterano e una domanda: perché cattolici e luterani non possono celebrare insieme l’Eucaristia?   Noi Siamo Chiesa

“El tesoro de la Iglesia son los pobres”    Somos Iglesia - Chile

Oct. 10, 2017.

Reform of the Vatican’s finances has been a top priority for Pope Francis. However, after some initial successes he has now suffered several serious reverses:

• An independent financial audit of the Vatican’s finances by PwC was abruptly halted
• Cardinal Pell who heads the new Secretariat of the Economy is in Australia facing sexual abuse charges in court which could see him away from Rome for a year – and no replacement has been appointed
• The highly respected Auditor General Libero Milone was appointed on a 5-year contract but left after 2 years. Milone says he was forced to quit after finding irregularities.

It appears obvious that some powerful members of the Curia do not want transparency in financial matters. The problem seems to lie in Vatican culture, where each Vatican department guards its autonomy. While most Vatican departments now prepare accounts covering their running costs, there are no public accounts of the Vatican’s property and investment portfolios, which are spread over a number of departments. The Vatican’s property portfolio is estimated at €10billion but these details are kept secret.  

Pope Francis has said: “If we don’t know how to look after money, which we can see, how can we look after the souls of the faithful, which we cannot?”

We Are Church International fully supports Pope Francis’ financial reforms aimed at accountability and transparency. “We call on Pope Francis to appoint a new head at the Secretariat of the Economy to replace Cardinal Pell, whose 5 year term would in any case end in 2019” said Sigrid Grabmeier, Chair of We Are Church International. “The new head should be a layperson with experience in change management in complex organizations. This is essential in giving the people of the Church a sense that the Vatican understands the importance of being open about its finances. It will increase the sense of trust donors have in the Vatican.”

Contact: Marianne Duddy-Burke, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. +1 617-669-7810

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We Are Church International (IMWAC) founded in Rome in 1996, is a global coalition of national church reform groups. It is committed to the renewal of the Roman Catholic Church based on the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and the theological spirit developed from it.

The so-called “Filial Correction on the Propagation of Heresies” directed towards Pope Francis and signed by 62 individuals represents the desperate complaints of a tiny group of extremist conservatives, according to We Are Church International, a coalition of 21 Catholic Church reform organizations from around the globe.

“We Are Church International has long supported Pope Francis’ efforts to emphasize our Church’s mission of caring for those who are hurting,” said Sigrid Grabmeier, of Germany, Chair of We Are Church International. “These 62 self-identified ‘scholars’ are far out of the mainstream of the Church. They seem to want to take our Church back to some ideal time when everyone lived by their rules. The reality is that time never existed!”

Grabmeier continued, “These people have been harassing Pope Francis for years, and seem to be very frustrated that he has not responded to their attacks. Instead, he has turned the other cheek, and continued to focus on listening to the needs of the people, and trying to reform a very broken governance system in the Church. We believe these are the correct priorities.”

We Are Church International is rooted in a commitment to a Catholic Church that evolves to ensure the Gospel can be made accessible to peoples of all times and cultures. “A Church that is inflexible and refuses to change will wither and die,” said Grabmeier. “A Church that excludes and condemns is the antithesis of Jesus Christ.”

We Are Church International and its member organizations expressed their ongoing commitment to further the development of new structures and governance methods in the Catholic Church, so that more of the Baptized can shape Church policy and dogma. “It is not only the Bishops, the Cardinals and the Pope who hold truth,” said Grabmeier. “All of the people of the Church have important and vital experience of the Divine, and that is what should shape our teachings. We the people are the ones who know the realities of marriage and divorce, of yearning to be a full member of our faith community without condemnation, of what the struggle to interpret Church teaching in the reality of life feels like. Those who signed this terrible document do not seem to know, or perhaps they do not care. This document is bad theology, it is harmful to our Church, and it is harmful to the people of God.”

Contact: Marianne Duddy-Burke, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., +1 617 669 7810

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We Are Church International (IMWAC) founded in Rome in 1996, is a global coalition of national church reform groups. It is committed to the renewal of the Roman Catholic Church based on the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and the theological spirit developed from it.