• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Effie Caldarola
          • John Garvey
          • Father Ed Dougherty, M.M.
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Xavière Missionary Sister Nathalie Becquart, undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops, speaks to Iacopo Scaramuzzi, a reporter for La Repubblica, in the Vatican press office April 26, 2023. The Vatican had just announced Pope Francis' decision to have women and laymen as voting members of the synod. (CNS photo/Cindy Wooden)

Pope decides women will be voting members of Synod of Bishops

April 26, 2023
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
Filed Under: Feature, News, Synodality, Vatican, World News

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — At least three dozen women will be voting members of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October, Pope Francis has decided.

In a decision formalized April 17, “the Holy Father approved the extension of participation in the synodal assembly to ‘non-bishops’ — priests, deacons, consecrated men and women, lay men and women,” the synod office said in a statement April 26.

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, relator general of the synod, told reporters April 26 that about 21 percent of the synod’s 370 members would not be bishops and at least half of that group would be women.

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, relator general of the Synod of Bishops, and Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary-general of the synod, pose for a photo in the Vatican press office April 26, 2023, after speaking to reporters about Pope Francis’ decision to have women and laymen as voting members of the synod. (CNS photo/Cindy Wooden)

Adding women and young people to the membership will make sure “the church is well represented” in the prayer and discussions scheduled for Oct. 4-29 at the Vatican, the cardinal said. “It will be a joy to have the whole church represented in Rome for the synod.”

“As you can see, the space in the tent is being enlarged,” Cardinal Mario Grech, synod secretary-general, told reporters, echoing the title that had been chosen for the working document for the just-completed continental phase of the synod. The document said that in local and national synod listening sessions there were consistent questions about how to promote greater inclusion in the Catholic Church while staying true to church teaching.

“The Synod of Bishops will remain a synod of bishops,” Cardinal Grech said, but it will be “enriched” by representatives of the whole church.

The pope’s decision to expand the categories of synod members, the April statement said, “is in continuity” with the Catholic Church’s growing understanding of the synodal dimension of the church and “the consequent understanding of the institutions through which it is exercised.”

Since the Synod of Bishops was reinstituted after the Second Vatican Council, the voting members of the synod have all been men. The membership was primarily cardinals and bishops, except for the 10 priests — and recently one religious brother — elected by the men’s Union of Superiors General.

Now, rather than the Union of Superiors General selecting 10 voting members, the office said, it will elect only five priests or brothers. And the women’s International Union of Superiors General also will elect five sisters or nuns.

Past synods have included women as non-voting “auditors,” a group that included many women.

Pope Francis has done away with the “auditor” category of synod participant, the Vatican said. Instead, there will be a group of 70 non-bishop members representing “various groupings of the faithful of the people of God,” including priests, consecrated women, deacons and laypeople from every part of the world.

The pope will choose the 70 from a list of 140 people selected by bishops and organizers of six regional groupings of bishops and by the Assembly of Patriarchs of Eastern Catholic Churches. The six regional groups are: the council of bishops’ conferences of Latin America and the Caribbean, known as CELAM; the Council of Bishops’ Conferences of Europe; the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar; the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences: the Federation of Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of Oceania; and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops together.

Each of the seven bishops’ groups will nominate 20 people, the statement said, and “it is requested that 50 percent of them be women and that the presence of young people also be emphasized.”

In addition to the 10 religious elected by their groups of superiors and the 70 non-bishop members nominated by continental groups, Pope Francis may include “non-bishop members” among the members he appoints.

And, since the leadership of the synod secretariat will be full members, that includes Xavière Missionary Sister Nathalie Becquart, undersecretary of the synod. Cardinal Hollerich added that after all the work they did preparing the synod, “it would be very unfair” to exclude them as members.

Most synod members will be bishops elected by their episcopal conference or by their Eastern Catholic bishops’ synod. The number of delegates each conference can elect depends on the size of the conference. Bishops’ conferences with more than 200 members — like the conferences of Italy, Brazil and the United States — will elect five members.

Read More Vatican News

New cardinals say building church unity is urgent need

New cardinals bring experience of ‘peripheries’ to universal church

Hope must be restored in communities, young people, pope says

Vatican at U.N.: Risk of nuclear war is ‘at its highest in generations’

Pope condemns child pornography: ‘Criminality available to everyone’

Message in Marseille: Welcoming the ‘stranger’ is a global mandate

Copyright © 2023 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

Cindy Wooden

Catholic News Service is a leading agency for religious news. Its mission is to report fully, fairly and freely on the involvement of the church in the world today.

View all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Baltimore’s beloved Brooks Robinson, Catholic convert, dies at 86
  • Archbishop Lori will ordain 14 permanent deacons Sept. 30
  • Frank Bramble, 75, put his business skills to charitable use throughout archdiocese
  • ‘The most equitable path for all victim-survivors’ – Archdiocese of Baltimore files for Chapter 11 reorganization
  • Fire in packed hall turns wedding joy into tragedy in northern Iraq, killing more than 100

| Latest Local News |

‘The most equitable path for all victim-survivors’ – Archdiocese of Baltimore files for Chapter 11 reorganization

Mount Calvary parishioners combines music, farming and family

New chief advancement officer for Archdiocese of Baltimore sees role as support for ministry

| Latest World News |

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, remembered for ‘extraordinary’ legacy and Barrett controversy, dies at 90

New cardinals say building church unity is urgent need

New cardinals bring experience of ‘peripheries’ to universal church

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Sen. Dianne Feinstein, remembered for ‘extraordinary’ legacy and Barrett controversy, dies at 90
  • ‘The most equitable path for all victim-survivors’ – Archdiocese of Baltimore files for Chapter 11 reorganization
  • New cardinals say building church unity is urgent need
  • New cardinals bring experience of ‘peripheries’ to universal church
  • Movie Review: ‘Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie’
  • Cupich: Embracing ‘integral ethic of solidarity’ key to living the Gospel in polarized times
  • Basilian Sisters given Catholic Extension’s top honor for ‘powerful witness’ amid peril in Ukraine
  • Apostolate addresses often overlooked grief from pregnancy, infant loss
  • Mount Calvary parishioners combines music, farming and family

Search

Membership

Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2023 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED