Pope says it's "urgent" to guarantee governance roles for women during meeting on church future

Pope Francis' big gathering of Catholic bishops and laypeople said Saturday it was "urgent" to guarantee fuller participation of women in church governance positions and called for research on allowing women to be deacons to be released within a year.

After a month of closed-door debate, Francis' meeting on the future of the Catholic Church ended late Saturday with the approval of a 42-page text on a host of issues that will now be considered at a second session next year. None of the proposals is binding, as they are merely offered for Francis to consider.

Each paragraph passed with the necessary two-thirds majority, but the ones involving women and priestly celibacy obtained the most "no" votes. Nevertheless, organizers hailed the voting as a success since none of the paragraphs failed to pass.

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"A more welcoming place"

Francis called the synod over two years ago as part of his overall reform efforts to make the church a more welcoming place, where lay people have a greater say in the life of the church. The process, and the two-year canvassing of rank-and-file Catholics that preceded it, sparked both hopes and fears that real change was afoot.

Progressives had hoped the gathering would send a message that the church would be more welcoming of LGBTQ+ people and offer women more leadership roles in a hierarchy where they are barred from ordination. Conservatives emphasized the need to stay true to the 2,000-year tradition of the church and warned that opening debate on such issues was a "Pandora's Box" that risked schism.

In a novelty, Francis allowed women and laypeople to vote alongside bishops, putting into practice his belief that the "People of God" in the pews are more important than the preachers and must have a greater say in church decision-making. That mission and his call for "co-responsibility" inspired in particular women seeking the restoration of female deacons, a ministry that existed in the early church.

In the end, as the votes were tallied, the gathering made its strongest proposals concerning women. It said it was "urgent to guarantee that women can participate in decision-making processes and assume roles of responsibility in pastoral and ministry," according to the final text.

It noted that Francis had significantly increased the number of women in high-ranking positions in the Vatican and said the same should occur in local churches, including by changing canon law to do so. The recommendation passed 319-27.

Voting along proposal lines

A follow-on proposal received the most "no" votes of all but still passed with a big margin beyond the two-thirds threshold necessary, 279-67.

In that proposal, the delegates called for theological and pastoral research to continue about allowing women to be deacons, and called for the results of the two study groups Francis has commissioned to be released before the second session of the synod opens in October, 2024.

In the end, there was no mention of homosexuality in the text, even though the working document going into it had specifically noted the calls for greater welcome of "LGBTQ+ Catholics" and others who have long felt excluded by the church.

The final text merely said people who feel marginalized by the church, because of their marital situation, "identity and sexuality, ask to be listened to and accompanied, and their dignity defended."

Elsewhere, the delegates concurred there remained questions about gender identity and sexual orientation in the church, listing them as "problems" like the ethics of artificial intelligence and end-of-life care that are also being debated in society at large.

The mere inclusion of laypeople as voting members in the meeting had prompted some to question the legitimacy of the gathering itself. They noted that the "Synod of Bishops" was created to provide the pontiff with the reflection of bishops, the successors of the apostles.

Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, whom Francis appointed as a member of the synod but has not hidden his opposition to it, said the gathering could hardly be called a Synod of Bishops "when lay people have the same voice, they have the same time to speak, and they take away opportunities for the bishops (to have) the possibility to speak."

Caution against expectation of change 

In an interview published Saturday in the National Catholic Register, Mueller outlined a scathing critique of the meeting, saying it was a manipulated, theologically light gathering claiming to be the work of the Holy Spirit but really aiming to undo church teaching.

"All is being turned around so that now we must be open to homosexuality and the ordination of women. If you analyze it, all is about converting us to these two themes," the German theologian was quoted as saying by the Register.

The Rev. Timothy Radcliffe, a British Dominican whom Francis asked to provide spiritual reflections periodically during the meeting, had a far different take. He praised the inclusion of laypeople as truly reflecting the spirit of a synod.

"There's a gathering of representatives of the College of Bishops, but it also shows the bishop not as a solitary individual, but immersed in the conversation of his people: Listening, talking, learning together," he said.

But even Radcliffe cautioned against expectations of radical change.

"It's a synod that gathers to see how we can be church in a new way, rather than what decisions need to be taken," he told reporters this week. He added that the process had only just begun. "And that's why there will be bumps. There will be mistakes. And that's fine, because we are on the way."

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