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CFC European Advisory Group
Both Europe and the European Union remain critical and challenging places for progressive Catholics and the work of Catholics for Choice. Between the continuing debates about and national policies regarding abortion, the public discussions of stem cell research and new technologies and the impact of fundamentalisms on public policy, there exists a manifest need for progressive voices and activism in the region.
CFC has long been involved in work that affects various European countries as well as the European Union. This work has included:
- working with national and European parliamentarians,
- coordinating the All Party Working Group on Separation of Religion and Politics in the European Parliament,
- providing communications trainings to individuals and groups working on sexual and reproductive health and rights issues,
- conducting opposition research,
- reaching out to and educating progressive Catholics about our issues, and
- promoting policies that enhance reproductive health and rights, the separation of religion and politics, and more.
This year, CFC instituted a CFC-Europe Advisory Group to bring together leading Catholic thinkers and activists from different parts of Europe to serve as a working group on the issues. Through the efforts of this group and dedicated staff, CFC will continue its work to infuse its values into public policy, community life and Catholic social thinking and teaching in Europe.
The members of the group are:
- HENK BAARS
- SUSANA CRUZALTA AGUIRRE
- GAIL GROSSMAN FREYNE, LL.B, PhD
- ANNA (ANKA) GRZYWACZ
- CHINI RUEDA SABATER
- MARGARET MAYANS DICKINSON
HENK BAARS
Henk has a lifelong commitment to progressive Catholicism, reproductive and sexual rights and women’s equality in the church and society. In addition, he has a deep-seated knowledge of Catholic theology and a long-standing dedication to working for social justice. Henk’s leadership in various Dutch and European progressive Catholic organizations has enriched the movement and the cause of progressive Catholicism and women’s rights. He is a regular contributor to the media on issues that are important to CFC and is a key figure in CFC’s investigative opposition research work in Europe. He is based in Amsterdam.
In addition to his work with Catholics for Choice, Henk manages eight social projects located in the poor neighborhoods of The Hague for Stek (for City and Church or voor Stad en Kerk), the most important Protestant church in the city. In 1985, Henk co-founded and eventually became president of the Eighth of May Movement (named for the date the pope visited Holland), an organization that drew more than 10,000 Catholics to its annual gatherings. As a result of his position with this organization, he was refused employment with Catholic organizations and chose to continue his work for social justice with Protestant-run service organizations. Henk started out as a pastor in a steel mill in IJmuiden, and later worked in Amsterdam as a chaplain in the shipbuilding industry and the world of finance. He was a community worker in Haarlem and the coordinator of a team that helped expand the work Catholic parishes. Henk is president of the Urban Mission Network in the Netherlands, a network of 200 social projects related to the Catholic and Protestant churches. He is also a member of the board of the oldest peace movement in Holland, 'Kerk en Vrede' (Church and Peace).
Susana Cruzalta started her work in the human rights area in 1994 at the education department of the Human Rights Center “Don Sergio” in Cuernavaca, Mexico, where she gave workshops and participated in the elaboration of educational materials. From 1995 to 1997, she worked at the Communications Department of the Human Rights Center “Fray Francisco the Vitoria OP” in Mexico City, where she conducted research on human rights in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, and collaborated in the preparation and promotion of a human rights magazine called “Justicia y Paz” (Justice and Peace).
Susana joined Catholics for the Right to Decide (CDD) in Mexico in 1995, where she worked on the elaboration, distribution, translation and promotion of educational materials until December 2000. She was also responsible for the establishment and coordination of the “Latin American and Caribbean Youth Network for Sexual and Reproductive Rights” and represented CDD in various national and international events.
Susana was born and raised in Cuernavaca, Mexico. She holds a degree in international relations from the University of the Americas Mexico and an LLM in human rights law from the University of Nottingham, UK. In January 2001, she moved to Berlin and in March 2003, she moved to Rome.
GAIL GROSSMAN FREYNE, LL.B, PhD
Gail Grossman Freyne is a psychotherapist and mediator and is a founding member of the Family Therapy & Counselling Centre in Dublin where she works in private practice.
Gail was born in Australia and did her law degree at Melbourne University. She has practiced law in both Australia and New Orleans, La. Recently, she completed her PhD in feminist ethics, her particular area of interest, and it will be published in November as “Care, Justice and Gender: A new harmony for family values.”
In Ireland, Gail is particularly interested in the legal and psychological aspects of the sexual abuse problem and also in the case currently before the High Court brought by a lesbian couple who are seeking to have their Canadian marriage recognized in that jurisdiction. She also teaches gender in the professional training program for family therapists, and ecofeminism in the MA program in theology and ecology in the University of Lampeter, Wales.
She is married and lives in Dublin with her husband, Sean, and their two daughters, Bridget and Sarah.
Anka Grzywacz is a freelance translator living in Warsaw, Poland. She holds an MA in applied linguistics from Warsaw University. She has been a volunteer at the Federation for Women and Family Planning for five years. Anka has been involved in numerous projects, including the Women on Waves campaign for the right to safe and legal abortion. During the past three years, she has received training and practiced as a peer sexual educator in secondary schools with a group of volunteers called Ponton. She also attended numerous workshops and conferences, particularly on youth reproductive rights issues.
Recently Anka decided to pursue a political career and started preparing for the new role by serving as a volunteer assistant to vice president of Poland's major left-wing party, Social Democratic Alliance (SLD), Professor Joanna Senyszyn. Her ambition is to become an MP dealing with women's rights issues. Anka makes a living translating documents, articles from the foreign press and movie subtitles.
Chini (María Eugenia) Rueda Sabater works as an elementary school teacher. She is president of Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir in Spain and joined the group in 2003. She is also a member of GIE (Spanish Interest Group on Population, Development and Reproductive Health).
Chini has worked on women related issues since the 1990s. She was involved in educational programs for marginalized women in Vallecas (Spain) and in Mindanao (the Philippines). She has been connected to feminist theology reflection groups and has written several articles on that issue.
Chini holds a degree in systematic theology from Comillas University, a Jesuit University in Madrid, and graduated with a degree in elementary school teaching from Zaragoza University. She lives in Villalba.
Margaret Mayans Dickinson was born in 1948 in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, to a Spanish father and English mother. Educated at Carmelitas de Vedruna in Gandía (Valencia) and at a boarding school run by the IBVM Loreto nuns in Madrid, Margaret also studied two years of biology at Valencia University. She has studied theology in Seville and at the Jesuits’ Centro Arrupe in Valencia.
After being married for one year, she obtained an annulment from the Catholic church in Spain because divorce was illegal. She was a member of the Valencian socialist party for a number of years and spent one year as an IBVM postulant to the novitiate in Seville.
Margaret retired from Iberia Airlines of Spain in July 2006 after thirty seven years. Since 1998, she has been involved with Dones Creients Valencia, a movement trying to bring faith and feminism together. In 2005, she joined Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir Spain, and represented the group in the “Jo no t’espere” campaign protesting the pope’s visit to the July 2006 World Meeting of Families in Valencia.