For many decades we have shown that women can and should be ordained as bishops, priests and deacons. We present the outcome of our research on www.womenpriests.org which has grown out into the largest online archive on the question.
The Wijngaards Institute is an independent academic thinktank totally dedicated to update the Catholic Church by its academic research.
The reason why the Catholic Church and other Churches still hold on to antiquated practices is the belief, among conservative church authorities and believers, that Sacred Scripture and Tradition prescribe the old doctrines and practices. We prove them wrong and by this we open the way to crucial reforms.
Equality for women
For many decades we have shown that women can and should be ordained as bishops, priests and deacons. We present the outcome of our research on www.womenpriests.org which has grown out into the largest online archive on the question.
To give an impression of the unique documentation www.womenpriests.org holds, this is the material it provides all of it relating to the ordination of women:
Because the website is meant to reach out to visitors from all continents, we translated large sections of it into 25 other languages. This required the voluntary help of about a hundred translators from all around the world. The website presents material in 5 international languages: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Chinese. It has sections in 12 (other) European languages: Catalan, Czech, Dutch, Finnish, German, Greek, Italian, Latin, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian and Swedish. It has texts in 7 Asian languages: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Malayalam, Tagalog and Urdu. It offers 3 African languages: Chichewa, Igbo and Swahili.
In September 2013 we sent our "Documented Appeal to Request the Reinstatement of the Ordained Diaconate for Women" to Pope Francis. It was co-signed by twenty major international reform movements in the Catholic Church.
We also published academic books on the ordination of women. Recently they included:
Church governance
The Catholic Church will not be open to necessary reforms unless important changes are adopted in the way it is governed. To bring this about we formulated "The Catholic Scholars' Declaration on Authority in the Church", calling for democratization of church structures in line with Vatican Council II.
It was published on 11 October 2012. Signed by 216 academics from 139 universities around the world, it was officially launched in the British Houses of Parliament on 5 March 2013.We sent a copy of the Declaration to all the cardinals who took part in the conclave that elected Pope Francis.
See the documentation on www.churchauthority.org.
Sexual morality
Another area requiring urgent update concerns the ethics of sexuality. We started by publishing reliable guidance on www.thebodyissacred.org.
In 2014 Pope Francis convoked a general Synod to discuss matters relating to ‘Family and Marriage’. We sent to Rome our Catholic Scholars’ Statement on Marriage and the Family, which was signed by 87 academics in many countries. Our document and the texts emerging from the Synod can be found on our website www.catholicmarriagemorality.com.
Rome’s prohibition of all artificial methods of family planning continues to cause havoc especially among the underclasses in Third World countries. It condemns families to a poverty they cannot escape and increases the spread of AIDS. In response we conducted another worldwide research project which resulted in “The Catholic Scholars' Statement on the Ethics of Using Contraceptives".
The Statement is based on an interdisciplinary study by 23 international academics. The Statement was co-signed by more than 150 Catholic scholars and launched at an event at the United Nations in New York on 20 September 2016. It recommends that "the Catholic 'magisterium' seek the opinion of Christian theologians and experts in other relevant disciplines with regard to the ethics of using modern non-abortifacient contraceptives for the purposes of family planning", with a view to repealing the prohibition to use so-called "artificial" contraceptives upheld by Pope Paul VI in his encyclical Humanae Vitae of 1968.
Rome also rejects the legitimacy of responsible same-sex relationships. We are just completing another international research project on the question. A declaration by scholars on the outcome will soon be published. Meanwhile see our two websites relating to the issue:
We are also initiating other research projects. The international scholars who form part of our various networks contribute their work do so on a voluntary basis. But we need support for our central administration which coordinates the projects and maintains the websites.
So, please, support us!