Our Members

CAC members are diverse – promoting innovative activities within church structures, independently running formation programs, conducting creative liturgies, advocating for change and implementation of synodality in dioceses, undertaking case studies, etc. A common feature is that each group develops a way of operating and a system that meets the wishes of the people in it. All are action based.

 

CAC Members each carry forward, in their own way, a faith that insists on welcome, dignity, and justice:

 

Be the Change Aotearoa

We are a group of women and men in New Zealand committed to gender equity in the Catholic Church.

Inspired by the international Women’s Ordination Movement, we want to support women called to ministries that are denied to them or hard to access, including priesthood, the diaconate, celebrating the sacraments and preaching homilies.

Women’s priesthood is the issue that first brought us together. We are still discerning what it might mean and how it might happen. Meanwhile, we are building our community and relationships, and staying open to how the Spirit moves among us.

In a safe, supportive and hope-filled space, we are journeying towards a new, inclusive model of Church that reflects God’s wholeness and is faithful to the Gospel.

Many of us also belong to other groups working for change, including St Paul’s Rongopai Eucharistic Community, Tui Motu Independent Catholic Magazine and Sophia women.

 

Concerned Catholics Canberra-Goulburn  CCCG

Concerned Catholics Canberra-Goulburn Inc. (CCCG) was established in 2017 by a group of lay Catholics in the Archdiocese of Canberra-Goulburn concerned about governance, cultural and structural issues arising from the child sexual abuse scandal.

In early 2026 CCCG determined priorities for the next three years would be:

1.      Provide solidly based information and commentary on matters relating to the Catholic Church in Australia;

2.      Monitor implementation of Synod reforms to assist full and early implementation, develop facilitative tools to assist and track progress;
 

3.      Encourage and empower lay Catholics to participate fully so that genuine synodality is embedded in the archdiocese;

4.      Call out delays, failures or misrepresentations of synodality in conjunction with Pathways Secretariat processes; and

5.      Prepare as a model exemplar, a ‘Statement of Requirements and Capabilities’ for the appointment of the next Archbishop of Canberra Goulburn.

CCCG: Thought leadership on Catholic Reform in Australia

 

Concerned Catholics Tasmania (CCT)

Originating from a meeting of interested Catholics in late 2019, Concerned Catholics Tasmania (CCT ) has around 150 members and a mailing list of over 300. Steering Committee Chair and Foundation Chair of CCT, Kim Chen, led CCT through the discernment to define structure and intent for this new organisation, one modelled on Concerned Catholics Canberra Goulburn, focussing on a local agenda that would, hopefully, see our Archdiocese align with the global church spirit of ‘synodality’ that Pope Francis was preaching.

CCT has recently renewed its key statements of purpose, vision and mission.  These reaffirm our commitment to collaborating with our Archbishop, priests and all the faithful in working towards important renewal and reform in our Church.

CCT holds an AGM with a guest speaker and at least one gathering with visiting speaker in each of the three regions every year.  Its newsletter is Around the Well, circulated around nine times annually.

https://www.concernedcatholicstasmania.org/

 

Concerned Catholics Wollongong (CCW)

We are a group of Catholics committed to helping realise the Second Vatican Council’s vision of renewal within the Wollongong Diocese, especially through the implementation of Synodality championed by Pope Francis and Pope Leo.  In answer to our Baptismal call, we seek the opening of doors in our Eucharistic communities to be inclusive, welcoming and collaborative to all peoples with sensitivity and compassion, especially the marginalised and victims of abuse.

Following on from the model developed by our own Australian Plenary Council in 2021, we seek to create more dynamic Catholic communities with shared leadership with the clergy and the laity, including women, in the spirit of Synodality.

 

Rainbow Catholics InterAgency for Mission (RCiA)

Rainbow Catholics InterAgency (RCiA) is a coalition of LGBTQIA+ affirming Catholic ministries, organizations, pastoral leaders and organizers. We support LGBTQIA+ Catholics, their families, friends and colleagues around Australia. Members include both LGBTQIA+ and non‐LGBTQIA+ identifying Catholics. Gospel values and Catholic Social Teaching inspire us.

RCiA builds partnerships and relationships, prays, educates and advocates for justice and the full equality of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex and Asexual people in the Australian Catholic and wider community.

We work for all LGBTQIA+ Catholics to be loved and celebrated as equal in the Body of Christ where LGBTQIA+ experiences, gifts and lived realities are honoured as part of the Catholic Christian tradition.

We celebrate the gifts, the achievements and the journeys of LGBTQIA+ Catholics, affirm their faith and different sexual orientation, gender identity and innate variations of sex characteristics. We work to end all forms of discrimination.

 www.rainbowcatholics.com.au

 

SA Catholics for an Evolving Church (SACEC)

We look for a Church that reads the signs of the times and brings the Gospel to life today. We work for a better world where people on the margins are treated with dignity, justice and fairness.

Jesus is our focus. Catholic social and environmental teaching guides us.

Our vision is of a Church where everyone belongs:

Eucharistic communities that are open and welcoming
Lively liturgy rooted in the reality of our everyday lives
Prayer and reflection in many forms, drawing on the Christian practices that have nourished Catholics through history.

We seek to be a community of disciples where leadership is shared and ministry is open to all, regardless of colour, gender, sexual orientation or class.

We seek a collaborative Church that embraces our social and cultural diversity and serves the world’s needs, especially with and alongside people living in poverty.

Find out more at www.sacec.org

 

Sense  of  the  Faithful  

The Sense of the Faithful Ltd started as an informal committee in 2018 in response to the Plenary Council of the Catholic Church in Australia. This first-in-our-lifetime opportunity to be consulted on key Church issues encouraged us from five parishes in Melbourne to form the group. We set up a website, with two broad objectives - facilitate discussion on key issues facing  the Church and foster a shared view across parishes and dioceses where this is possible.

Our name reflects the long-standing view that the shared views of all the faithful - laity and clergy, popes and paupers, female and male – have a special place of wisdom and authority in the Church.

Documentation of our historical activities is available on our website at www.senseofthefaithful.org.au.  On 25 July 2024, we were granted registration as an incorporated company limited by guarantee and were granted charity tax concessions by the Australian Tax Office.

 

Voices of Australian Catholic Laity (VOCAL)

VOCAL is a group of lay Catholics from three New South Wales dioceses: Sydney, Wilcannia-Forbes and Broken Bay. Formed in 2019, we are committed to renewing the Church, and we believe the laity must take part in that renewal.

Our vision is a Church that lives the Great Commandment in everything it does. We hope for a Church that is:

synodal and genuinely inclusive
transparent in its decisions and finances
open to women and men in every role
free from clericalism

We share information on questions of faith and Church reform, reflect on Pope Francis’s teaching, and support one another. We meet face to face occasionally and stay in close, regular contact.

VOCAL is a proud foundation member of CAC. We hope CAC will grow into a National Lay Assembly, recognised as an equal partner by the Australian bishops and religious leaders.

 

Women and the Australian Church (WATAC)

WATAC commenced in 1984 as a national project of the Religious women and men of Australia.
While WATAC is Catholic by origin, it is ecumenical by membership and is committed to working with other churches and faiths.

The vision: to model new ways of being church, based on a “discipleship of equals”.
Aims:
• Engages those searching and longing for an inclusive church
• Nourishes them in diverse ways
• Acts for justice in local and global issues
• Provides healing and hope
• Gives birth to a transformed church
• Gives a national forum where the voice of women can be heard on societal and church issues.

Current Project is a series of conversations using Zoom “WATAC Presents”.
Self-funded through membership subscriptions and donations.

www.WATAC.net.au

 

Welcoming Christian Community (WCC)

Founded in 2011 as Inclusive Catholics by Melbourne priest Fr Greg Reynolds, we are a community for people disillusioned with institutional churches. Everyone is welcome here, no questions asked, including lapsed Catholics, survivors of clerical abuse, divorced people, supporters of women’s ordination and LGBTIQA+ people.

Our members come from many backgrounds, ages and denominations, especially Catholic. We encourage prayer, meditation, scripture reading and social action. An elected Stewardship Team leads us democratically.

We hold fortnightly Eucharistic celebrations at Glen Iris Road Uniting Church Community Centre.

Unlike many reform groups, we work outside the control of the hierarchy. Remaining true to our Christian heritage, we model a non-hierarchical church, as in early Christian days, without waiting for official approval.

We work with other reform groups, are also active members of the Council of Australasian Catholics and share a close affinity with St Mary’s in Exile, Brisbane.

 

Women’s Wisdom at the Church (WWATCH)

We are a group of women with backgrounds in Catholic or Anglican faith traditions who aim to raise awareness of women’s wisdom, experience and skills in the Australian Church and to increase the opportunities for women to demonstrate these in the Church.

We meet regularly in Melbourne to support each other, share liturgy, and to implement activities that showcase women’s participation. Current activities include an annual celebration of St Phoebe at Ecumenical Evensong in St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral, and a program of women preaching in Catholic parishes around Melbourne.

We are concerned by the lack of acknowledgement by Church leaders of the pain and suffering of the victims of sexual abuse, the need to change the underlying clericalism of the Catholic Church, and the inability of the Church leaders to consider the current priestly formation and its negative effects.