We Are Church International is an international movement founded in Rome in 1996 and registered under French law,[1] which aims to support the renewal of the Catholic Church on the basis of the teachings of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) "and the theological spirit developed from it".[1]
The movement evolved from the Church Referendum in Austria in 1995 which was started after the paedophilia scandal around Vienna's Cardinal Groer. We are Church is represented in more than twenty countries on all continents and networks world-wide with similar-minded reform groups.
As international studies of renowned religion sociologists confirm, We are Church as a reform movement within the Church represents the "voice of the people in the pews" and has demonstrated this in several Shadow Synods in Rome.
It has described Hans Küng as the spiritual father of initiatives that led to the founding of We Are Church.[2]