The Vatican summit, which lasted a month, has concluded with a call for women to take on more leadership roles in the Catholic Church, but there was no mention of women being ordained as priests, as some progressives had hoped at the beginning of the process.
The synod marked the end of a four-year consultation to gather the opinions of every church-attending Catholic worldwide. Pope Francis allowed some lay people, including nearly 60 women out of 368 voting delegates, to participate in what is typically a bishops conference.
All synod members voted on 151 proposals. Despite all proposals passing with the necessary two-thirds majority, the proposal for women to take on more leadership roles in the Church, which has an all-male clergy, received the most dissenting votes.
Supporters of increased roles for women in the Church had hoped the synod would propose women serving as deacons. However, the synod did not make progress on this issue, but the final document stated that “there is no reason or barrier preventing women from assuming leadership roles in the Church”.
Currently, only men can become deacons in the Catholic Church – ordained ministers who can perform baptisms, weddings, and funerals but not mass, unlike priests.
While reform groups also desired concrete steps to better embrace the LGBT+ community, the final document made no mention of this group, except for a brief reference to those who feel “excluded or judged” due to their “marital status, identity, or sexuality”.
Reverend James Martin, a prominent American Jesuit priest who ministers to the LGBT+ community and was part of the synod, commented that it was “not surprising” that the new text did not specifically address the group.
Progressives may be disappointed, but some conservatives were displeased with the entire summit from the start.
This has been a significant undertaking, and the 87-year-old Pope referred to the final document as a “gift” to the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics. However, many traditionalists opposed the idea of opening up this consultation process – a personal initiative of his – to lay people and questioned the concept of seeking the opinions of non-clergy.
Nonetheless, it aligns with Pope Francis’ belief that grassroots Catholics should have a greater role in shaping the Church’s future, not just cardinals and bishops – one of many reasons why traditionalists have criticized him.