We coordinate leading academics worldwide to produce evidence-based research tackling the Church’s most disputed areas — from women’s ordination to sexual ethics, contraception, and governance.
Founded by Dr John Wijngaards
Faith in Action: Justice, Peace & the Future of the Church. Our Executive Director gives the Saturday keynote. Three tickets to give away to supporters.
Our statements, interviews and articles have featured in the New York Times, BBC, National Catholic Reporter, The Tablet, The Guardian, The Irish Times and RTÉ.
Two full-time staff, a global network of academics and volunteers, and our Trustees and Patrons — quietly building the case for a more inclusive Church.
Our worldwide team of academics is finalising our newest report. To learn more — or to be part of the launch event — write to us.
New reports, publications, and event invitations — sent only when something matters.
We produce pioneering theological research by coordinating leading academics worldwide to collaborate on reports tackling the Church’s disputed areas. We provide a qualified challenge to the Vatican teaching that causes harm and is based on ancient prejudice. And we provide educational materials so that Catholics can understand the truth of their tradition and receive support to inform their own conscience regarding these key areas:
Addressing discrimination against women through evidence supporting women as priests and deacons.
Dismantling prejudice and false teaching about sexual ethics, including same-sex relationships.
Family planning, artificial contraception and the ethics of reproductive healthcare.
The full co-responsibility of all Catholics for the governance of the Catholic Church.
Offer academically rigorous, evidence-based, and constructive criticisms of contested official teachings which stray far from Christian equality and love.
Support those who suffer the consequences of bad theology that bans and condemns contraception, women’s ministries, same-sex relationships, and the full co-responsibility of all Catholics for the governance of the Catholic Church.
Support every Catholic in their right to understand the theology that impacts their lives by making transformative, inclusive, and open-minded education available free of charge all over the world.
Stand as a pillar of credible, academically rigorous theological research that the Vatican cannot ignore, thus keeping pressure on the Catholic hierarchy to change its harmful teachings and practices.
Provide a source of evidence-based education to Catholics globally who are negatively impacted by Catholic teaching or who question the legitimacy of official pronouncements.
Produce peer-reviewed research reports that signal to the world that there is a strong body of Catholic theologians and scholars dedicated to showing the possibility of a more inclusive, participatory, and evidence-led Church.
As insiders knowledgeable about the Catholic Church’s tradition, politics, and way of thinking, we are uniquely positioned to advocate for a more inclusive and participatory Catholic Church by showing its compatibility with both core ethical insights of the Catholic tradition, and contemporary human rights and values based discourse, and to do so using arguments which are convincing to leaders of the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church exerts significant influence on the lives of over one billion people through its churches, healthcare facilities and schools that span every country in the world. Yet its leadership discourages scrutiny or discussion of its teachings and policies.
As long as this situation persists there will be a need for our work. The Wijngaards Institute is a private educational charity, and can therefore maintain full independence from external pressures. This has made it possible for it to build vast online libraries of high quality academic research on precisely those issues which are the least openly discussed in the Catholic Church.
Where theology remains rooted in cultural prejudice, the ensuing teaching and practices experienced in the millions of churches, schools and hospitals under Vatican control can have catastrophic consequences. Key to challenge and change the status quo is understanding the origins of the current theology, and providing a qualified, constructive criticism that shows how a more inclusive understanding of Catholicism is possible and indeed desirable. This is the mission of the Wijngaards Institute and the unique position we hold in the field of Roman Catholic Church reform.