Pope Francis has made an important and historic decision. On Wednesday he decided to give women the right to vote at an upcoming meeting of bishops, a reform that reflects his hope to give women greater decision-making responsibilities and laity more voice in the life of the Catholic Church.
In practice, the Pope altered the norms that govern the Synod of Bishops, a Vatican body that brings together the world’s bishops in periodic meetings and responds to the aspirations claimed by women for decades on the right to vote.
The Vatican published on Wednesday the approved amendments, which emphasize the vision for the lay faithful to assume a greater role in the affairs of the church, long in the hands of clergy, bishops and cardinals.
Catholic women’s groups that have long criticized the Vatican for treating women as second-class citizens immediately hailed the move as historic in the church’s 2,000-year life.
“This is a significant crack in the stained-glass ceiling and the result of sustained advocacy, activism and testimony” by a campaign by Catholic women’s groups demanding the right to vote, said Kate McElwee of the Conference of Ordination of Women, which advocates for women priests.
Since the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, with its reforms that modernized the church, popes have summoned bishops from around the world to Rome for a few weeks to discuss particular issues. At the end of the meetings, the bishops vote on specific proposals and present them to the pope, who then draws up a document taking his views into account.
Until now, the only people who could vote were men. But under the new changes, five religious sisters will join five priests as voting representatives of religious orders. In addition, Francis has decided to appoint 70 non-bishop members of the Synod and asked that half be women. They will also have a vote.
The goal is to include young people among these 70 non-bishop members. They will be proposed by regional blocs with Francisco making the final decision.
“It’s a big change. [pero] it is not a revolution,” Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, one of the main organizers of the Synod, told the Vatican press.
The next meeting, scheduled for October 4-29, focuses on the issue of making the church more reflective and responsive to the laity, a process known as “synodality” that the pope has advocated for years.
The October meeting was preceded by an unprecedented two-year survey of lay Catholic faithful on their vision for the church and how it can respond to better meet the needs of today’s Catholics.
So far, only one woman is known to be a voter at that October meeting, Sister Nathalie Becquart, a French nun who is an undersecretary in the Vatican’s Synod of Bishops office. When she was appointed to the position in 2021, she called Francisco “brave” for pushing the boundaries of women’s participation.
By the end of next month, seven regional blocs will propose 20 names each of non-bishop members to Francis, who will select 10 names each to bring the total to 70.
Cardinal Mario Grech, who is in charge of the Synod, noted that with the changes, 21% of the representatives at the October meeting will be non-bishops. Half of that group are women.
Still, the cardinal has acknowledged unease within the hierarchy over Francis’s vision of inclusivity, but stressed that the Synod would continue to have a majority of bishops in command.
“Change is normal in life and history,” Hollerich told reporters. “Sometimes there are revolutions in history, but revolutions have victims. We don’t want to have victims,” he said with a laugh.
The Ordination of Catholic Women (CWO), a UK-based group dedicated to combating misogyny in the church, welcomed the reform but called for more.
“CWO would want transparency and lay people chosen from the dioceses instead of chosen by the hierarchy. But it’s a start,” said CWO’s Pat Brown.
On the other hand, Francis has ratified the Catholic Church’s ban on ordaining women as priests, but he has done more than any other pope in recent times to give women a greater say in decision-making, according to Vatican media.
He has appointed a number of women to high-ranking posts at the Vatican, though none heads its top offices or departments, known as dicasteries.
