When the internet became a reality I realised that it would provide an even wider distribution of knowledge than books or articles could do. So I designed a number of educational websites.
I wrote their main pages, and was able – with the help of a wonderful team of staff and volunteers – to build them out to valuable sources of information.
Our websites grew out to a sizeable cluster. Here I indicate the most prominent ones. They form, as it were, a library of information that will help to bring about reforms in the Catholic Church. And though the topics covered in these sites differ, they are yet truly interrelated.
John Wijngaards
 This site provides the arguments for and against the ordination of women. Sections in 26 key languages offer thousands of historical documents, church decrees, texts by scholars and the findings of contemporary research. WWW.WOMENPRIESTS.ORG |
 During its first thousand years the Catholic Church routinely gave a ‘sacramental’ diaconate ordination to women, as much as to men. This website provides the evidence: 25 complete texts of the ordination rites used, historical records of 100+ women who served as deacons, proof that Popes knew of these ordination and approved of them. WWW.WOMENDEACONS.ORG |
 One of the reasons why reform in the Catholic Church stagnates is the top-down authoritarian form of government that is still in place. This site hosts the Catholic Scholars’ Declaration on Authority in the Church that calls for a truly collegial form of rule on all levels in the Church. WWW.CHURCHAUTHORITY.ORG |
 For centuries Christians have been suffering from a repression of ‘body’ and of ‘sex’. This was not due to the teaching of Jesus Christ, but to cultural influences such as the semi-Manichaean St Augustine, scholastic rigor, Jansenism and so on. WWW.THEBODYISSACRED.ORG offers the more correct and healthy approach promoted by up-to-date moral theology. |
 In the developed countries many Christians drift out of their churches. The main cause is the perception that the traditional concept of ‘God’ clashes with our new scientific understanding of the universe. WWW.MYSTERYANDBEYOND.ORG tries to rectify naive notions. It points out ways to make sense of ‘God’ in our modern world. |
 In 1968 Pope Paul VI imposed a ban on the use of artificial contraception in family planning. The ban was based on the mistaken notion that such contraceptive methods go against Natural Law. This website documents some of the history surrounding the discussion and explains why Catholics can follow their own consciences in the matter. WWW.CATHOLICSANDCONTRACEPTION.COM. |
 Many out-of-date beliefs of traditionalists in the Church rest on a mistaken interpretation of Scripture texts. This website tries to remedy this anomaly by pointing out the correct principles that should guide our reading of the inspired Word of God. WWW.INTERPRETINGSCRIPTURECORRECTLY.COM |
 Though Catholic authorities now recognise that some men and women are homosexual, they still maintain that a ‘partnership’ between homosexuals runs counter to Natural Law. Apart from providing the official church documents, this website tackles the underlying misunderstandings directly. WWW.ISHOMOSEXUALITYNATURAL.COM |
