A woman pope? Meet the feminists trying to save the Catholic Church

“People were very angry,” says Angelika Fromm, a 70-year-old Maria 2.0 member, of the scandals. “And a lot of people have left the church because of this.”

She is one of roughly 200 demonstrators who gathered in Fulda last month, zipping around the picturesque town in her mobility scooter handing out whistles and flyers.

It was the third time the group protested here; winding their way around cobblestone streets to the magnificent cathedral where dozens of bishops from across the country had gathered for the German Bishops’ Conference.

Each woman has her own reasons for joining the movement. Some, like Fromm, are long-time campaigners for gender equality in the church.

The soft-spoken activist was born in 1951, into a deeply Catholic family in the former communist German Democratic Republic, where religion was repressed.