"Our action "maria 2.0" has become an absolute self-runner," said co-initiator lisa kotter on saturday in munster. It is difficult to estimate how many people will take part in the week-long church strike. However, hundreds of groups, some of them entire church congregations, from berlin, hamburg and freiburg, among other places, had shown solidarity with the movement, kotter said.
The believers involved in the strike, according to kotter women and men, want to protest in the next few days against power structures in the church and the cover-up of sexual abuse by officials. In an online petition to pope francis, they demand access to all church offices and the abolition of the obligation of celibacy for catholic priests.