In an unprecedented decision on the involvement of women and laity in the decision-making process of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis today decided to give women the right to vote in the Synod, leading Lusa.
The changes announced today will be applied at the next synod, which will be held in two parts, the first from October 4 to 29 this year and the second from October 2024, and will highlight the Vatican’s current vision of where the common faithful will begin. Take a larger role in church affairs, long left to clergy, bishops and cardinals.
Catholic women’s groups, which have criticized the Vatican for treating women as second-class citizens, have already hailed the move as historic.
The main innovation is the granting of voting rights to five religious sisters, who will join five priests as representatives of religious orders at the meeting, the Vatican said.
Pope Francis decided to nominate 70 non-clerical members to the synod, asking that half be women and that all have the right to vote.
When presenting these changes, Jean-Claude Hollerich, archbishop of Luxembourg and General Rapporteur of the October Synod, considered that it was not a question of a revolution, since the Assembly continues to be an assembly of bishops”, with 75% of the first participants continuing to be bishops.
Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary general of the synod, played down the changes, saying “it will continue to be a synod of bishops, but with the participation of lay members.”
A synod of bishops is a meeting of the ecclesiastical hierarchy that discusses topics of interest to the Catholic Church.
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