Movimiento internacional

Somos-Iglesia

Movimento Internacional

Nós somos Igreja

Movimento Internazionale

Noi siamo Chiesa

Mouvement international

Nous sommes Eglise

Internationale Bewegung

Wir sind Kirche

International Movement

We are Church

Chair: Raquel Mallavibarrena

Penuelas 17

28005 Madrid

SPAIN

Tel.: +34-649332654

eMail: rmallavi@mat.ucm.es

Internet: www.we-are-church.org

Papstbrief0607_en.DOC

Freising / Munich, July 2006

His Holiness

Pope Benedict XVI

Palazzo Apostolico Vaticano

V - 00120 Città del Vaticano

Fax: 0039 06-6988-5088

Your Holiness The Honourable Pope Benedict XVI,

In July 2005, we, as conscientious members of the People of God, and as members of the International

Movement We Are Church, a reform movement within the Roman Catholic Church, greeted you and

extended our prayers for God’s blessings upon you as you exercise your many important duties during

a time of great historic change in our world. We also asked for a personal meeting. As there was no

reply at all to our letter, the International Movement We Are Church, whose delegates met in Freising

this summer, is addressing you again.

The Church Referendum of 1995, which was signed by several million people, and demonstrably

supported by many more Catholics, made known to the pastors of the church the needs of the Christian

faithful. We also made manifest their opinions on matters that pertain to the good of the Church.

This action flowed out of church law contained in the Codex Juris Canonici Can. 212§ 2 and 3. We

also made our opinions known to the rest of the Christian faithful, as is our right and duty.

We did so out of our deep and abiding love and concern for the well-being of the entire Church. As

Professor P. Bernard Häring, a signer of the Referendum stated: “WE ARE CHURCH has an indispensable

duty to courageously do our share in the always-needed reform [of the Church]. We do

not shirk our common duty. We want to work with church officials, not against them. We express

criticism and we accept criticism, because we believe in the Spirit of distinction. We are journeying

together with the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”

Meeting in Freising in June 2006, representatives of the International Movement We Are Church,

now a worldwide organization, concluded that even eleven years after the launching of the church

referendum in Austria neither our church leaders in Rome nor most of the bishops in the various

countries have yet adequately addressed the growing problems resulting from the current structures

of the Roman Catholic church, which have caused profound suffering for countless faithful Christians

all over the world.

As we are convinced that the charismas of our Church are very important to you, and because we

wish to support our bishops in their desire to take appropriate and courageous measures to meet the

huge pastoral needs of the faithful, we cordially ask you again for a personal meeting to launch an

open, broad, constructive, and mutual dialogue. For it is only if we all, church leaders and the People

of God, work together – jointly and constructively in a true spirit of cooperation – can the challenges

of the future be dealt with successfully.

Yours sincerely

gez. Raquel Mallavibarrena

Raquel Mallavibarrena Christian Weisner

for the International Movement We Are Church