A month-long Vatican summit has ended with a call for women to have more leadership roles in the Catholic Church, but not a call for women to be ordained as priests, as some progressives had hoped at the start of the process.
The synod was the end of a four-year consultation aimed at gauging the views of every church-going Catholic globally, and Pope Francis opened up what is usually a bishops conference to some lay people, including nearly 60 women of 368 voting delegates.
All of the synod members voted on each of 151 proposals.
Although all proposals were passed by the required two-thirds majority, the most “no” votes were given to the proposal about women assuming more leadership roles in the Church, which has an all-male clergy.document’s approval by the synod body, the pope approved its publication.
Francis said that he hoped the document would be a “gift to the people of God.” He said that he did not intend to publish an apostolic exhortation, a magisterial document typically published at the conclusion of the synod offering the pope’s own reflections.
Instead, he said, the document already contains “highly concrete indications” to guide the church’s mission.
The pope also noted the work of the special study groups on some of the most contentious issues that surfaced throughout the three-year process. Their work is expected to continue through June 2025.
The synodal church, the pope said, now needs its words “to be accompanied by action.”
