The month-long Vatican conference ended with a call for women to hold more leadership positions in the Catholic Church, but not for women to be ordained as priests, as some progressives had hoped at the start of the process.
The synod was the only four-year dialogue aimed at exploring the views of all Catholics around the world, and Pope Francis opened what is often a bishops’ conference to a select audience, including nearly 60 women among the 368 voting delegates.
All members of the node voted on each of the 151 proposals.
Although all proposals were passed by the required two-thirds majority, the majority of “no” votes were cast on a proposal about women taking on more leadership roles in the Church, which has an all-male clergy.
Advocates of a greater role for women in the Church hoped that the synod could call women to serve as deacons. The Synod did not move forward with this step, but its final document stated that “there is no reason or obstacle that should prevent women from taking up leadership roles in the Church”.
The Catholic Church currently allows men to be deacons – ordained ministers who can officiate at baptisms, weddings and funerals but not mass, unlike priests.
Although reform groups also had hopes and concrete ways to better accept gays in the Church, the final document did not mention the LGBT+ community, except for a passing reference to those who feel “ostracized or judged” because of “their marital status, their identity. or gender”.
The Rev. James Martin, a prominent American Jesuit priest who serves the LGBT community and is a member of the synod, said it was “not surprising” that the new text did not specifically address the group.
Progressives may be disappointed but some conservatives have been upset about this whole convention from the start.
This was a huge task, and the Pope, 87, called the final document a “gift” to the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, but most of the traditionalists were against opening this consultation process – his project – to lay people and questioned the idea of measuring the opinions of non-clergy.
But it is consistent with Pope Francis’ view that it is the lower-ranking Catholics who should play a greater role in shaping the future of the Church and not just cardinals and bishops – one of the many reasons traditional leaders have given him a hard time.
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