Catholic Leaders Urge Continued Funding for Planned Parenthood
Catholic Leaders Urge Continued Funding for Planned Parenthood
As a matter of faith, conscience, equality, and dignity, we, the members of Women-Church Convergence (W-CC) rebuke and condemn efforts to curtail access to critical healthcare with the current move to defund Planned Parenthood. As a Catholic-rooted, feminist coalition committed to social justice, we stand in solidarity with the millions of Catholic women—in the U.S. and around the globe--who use and need the services and care provided by Planned Parenthood for their cancer screenings, access to contraception, and other critical health care.
The core of the Catholic faith prizes justice and fairness for all of creation. It is therefore not an option to ignore the rights and voices of women. Women deserve safe and accessible healthcare. Our faith teaches us that healthcare should not simply be the providence of those with means; nor should healthcare be dependent on the whims of a market. Rather, healthcare is a human right and reproductive healthcare is integral to healthcare. Cutting off federal funds from Planned Parenthood for health care reduces the ability of individual women to access needed health care. It perpetuates racial injustice and gender-based violence by disproportionately targeting women of color and restricting access to reproductive freedom. Women’s health is both domestically and globally undervalued and underfunded, and these efforts to defund Planned Parenthood—following the reinstatement of the Global Gag Rule and its disastrous consequences—would further prove that women’s lives are not valued by this administration and our elected representatives in Congress.
Read more: Catholic Leaders Urge Continued Funding for Planned Parenthood
Women-Church Convergence Statement on the Climate Crisis
For Immediate Release: April 19, 2017
Women-Church Convergence Statement on the Climate Crisis
Member groups of Women-Church Convergence (W-CC) issued the following statement:
As Earth Day, April 22, is marked worldwide, the following members of W-CC join thousands of other organizations and individuals in decrying the current state of the world where environmental degradation is increasing quickly.
We hold political leaders, business leaders and religious leaders accountable for protecting our environment worldwide, and condemn damaging and myopic policies that are threatening human civilization
The signs of distress, human and ecological, are all around. Drought threatens life in places as diverse as the Sudan and California. Food production is at risk. Human health weakens. Countless species of animal and plant life are threatened. Increasing carbon emissions compromise clean air necessary to sustain healthy life. Disastrous climate events such as floods, storms and hurricanes increase.
Read more: Women-Church Convergence Statement on the Climate Crisis
Women-Church Convergence Members Respond To Challenging Times With Spirituality and Calls for Justice
For Immediate Release: April 6, 2017
Women-Church Convergence Members Respond To Challenging Times With Spirituality and Calls for Justice
Women-Church Convergence (W-CC), a coalition of autonomous Catholic-rooted feminist organizations, gathered in Chicago last weekend for its annual meeting and expressed its extreme dismay about the present United States administration and its destructive policy positions on many urgent issues.
W-CC held a public panel in conjunction with its annual meeting entitled “Feminist Spirituality and Activism in Challenging Times,” in which five inspiring women of faith shared their perspectives on intersectional activism since the election. Speakers on the panel included Mary E. Hunt, Ph.D., a feminist theologian who is co-founder and co-director of the Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER), Sonja Spoo, Domestic Program Associate at Catholics for Choice (CFC), Laura Singer, an activist for reform in the Catholic church working with the Women's Ordination Conference and Call To Action, and Lauren Robinson and Violet Ricker, both current students at McCormick Theological Seminary.
Knights of Columbus as the new funding base of Crux
For Immediate Release: April 14, 2016
Member organizations of Women-Church Convergence, in our capacity as an educational coalition with a particular commitment to women and marginalized people, have serious concerns about the Knights of Columbus as the new funding base of Crux.
We suggest that our colleagues look at the following well researched pieces that shed light on the dubious and problematic practices of the Knights of Columbus especially with regard to LGBTIQ issues and reproductive justice, including:
Read more: Knights of Columbus as the new funding base of Crux
Catholic Women: "Our Absence Means Synod Lacks Credibility"
For Immediate Release: October 23, 2014
Contacts: Erin Saiz Hanna,
Marianne Duddy-Burke,
Gathered in Chicago for its annual meeting, October 17-19, 2014, the members of Women-Church Convergence, a coalition of feminist Catholic groups, issued the following statement as the Extraordinary Synod on the Family was drawing to a close in Rome.
Women-Church Convergence celebrates the diversity of families and affirms the holiness of all families where love and commitment reign.
Read more: Catholic Women: "Our Absence Means Synod Lacks Credibility"
Vatican's Influence on the UN
The issue of the Vatican’s influence on the UN’s resolution for the protection of Women’s right defenders has come to our attention. Catholics for Choice assures us that they are keeping close scrutiny on the Holy See’s and some conservative countries’ obstruction of women and children’s full human rights. The Holy See and its allies insisted on the deletion of a paragraph that stated religious beliefs, national laws and cultural traditions would not be an exception to the resolution.
Women-Church Convergence Celebrates 30 Years
Press Release
For Immediate Release
From: Women-Church Convergence
Subject: Women-Church Convergence Celebrates 30 Years
Contacts: Katherine Wojtan, Women-Church Convergence Coordinator,
651-788-9869 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Women-Church Convergence, a coalition of diverse Catholic-rooted groups, celebrated its thirtieth anniversary September 27-29, 2013, by affirming its mission and applauding the “Conscience Monologues: Women’s Stories of Conscience within the Catholic Church” produced by the 8th Day Center, a member group of the Convergence. More than fifty women gathered in the Chicago area representing fifteen member organizations for prayer, discussion, and festivity.