Pope Francis has decided to grant women the right to vote at the next meeting of bishops (scheduled for October), an unprecedented move that reflects his hopes that women and laymen will gain decision-making power in the Catholic Church.
The Vatican on Wednesday published pope-approved changes to the rules of the Synod of Bishops, a body that brings together the world's bishops on a regular basis.
The move further emphasizes his vision for laymen to assume a larger role in Church affairs limited for centuries to bishops and cardinals.
The pope recites the Regina Coeli prayer in St. Peter's Square in the Vatican on Sunday, April 16, 2023. Andrew Medichini / AP
Since the Second Vatican Council, the summit that modernized the Catholic Church in the 1960s, popes have summoned bishops to Rome for a few weeks every so often to address specific issues.
There they vote on specific proposals and present them to the pope, who then issues a document taking those positions into account.
Until now, the only ones who could vote were men, but for decades women have demanded the right to vote in synods.
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Under the new norms approved by the pope,
five nuns will join five priests as voting representatives
of religious orders.
Francis also decided to name 70 non-bishop synod members who will also be able to vote, calling for half to be women.
His goal is to include young people among those 70, who will be proposed to the pope by region for him to decide.
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“It is an important change, it is not a revolution
,” said Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, one of the main organizers of the synod.
The synod, scheduled for October 4-29, will focus precisely on the issue of making the Church better reflect and respond to the laity, a process known as "synodality" that Francis has championed for years.
The meeting was preceded by an unprecedented two-year survey of the lay faithful on their vision of the Church and how it can best respond to the needs of Catholics.
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Cardinal Mario Grech, head of the Synod, stressed that, with the changes, around 21% of the representatives gathered at the meeting will not be bishops, and half of that group will be women.
Acknowledging unease within the hierarchy over Francis' vision of inclusivity, he stressed that the synod itself would still have a majority of bishops with decisive power.
Hollerich declined to say what the women will be called at the meeting, as synod members have long been known as "synod fathers."
When asked if they would be known as "synodal mothers", he replied that that would be for the women to decide.
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Francis has upheld the Catholic Church's ban on ordaining women priests, but has done more than any other pope in recent times to empower women in Church decision-making.
He has appointed several women to high-ranking posts at the Vatican, although there are no women heading any of the main offices or departments, known as dicasteries.
