Rome Newsroom, Apr 26, 2023 / 07:07 am (CNA).
The Vatican announced Wednesday that there will be laypeople participating as voting members in the Synod on Synodality’s October assembly, a break with past custom, which allowed laypeople to participate without the right to vote.
Pope Francis will also approve every member in advance.
The general assembly of the Synod on Synodality will take place in two sessions, in October 2023 and October 2024.
After the vote on a final document for the assembly, the pope alone decides whether to take any actions based on the recommendations in the final text or whether to adopt it as an official Church document.
The leadership of the synod released information in a FAQ sheet April 26 about who will attend the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October and how they will be chosen.
The biggest change announced Wednesday was the removal of the “auditor” role. In past synods, auditors included priests, religious, and laypeople, who did not have the right to vote in synod deliberations.
Now, these 70 members, who may be priests, consecrated women, deacons, and laypeople, will be able to vote. They will be chosen by the pope from among a list of 140 people selected by the leadership of this year’s continental synod meetings.
According to the synod leadership, it is requested that “50% of [the selected people] be women and that the presence of young people also be emphasized.”
“In selecting them, account is taken not only of their general culture and prudence but also of their knowledge, both theoretical and practical, as well as their participation in various capacities in the synod process,” the FAQ sheet says.
A second change states that five women religious and five men religious will be elected to represent their institutes of consecrated life rather than 10 religious priests as in the past.
The last modification is that Pope Francis will personally choose the representatives of the Vatican dicasteries who participate in the assembly.
“It’s a change, but it’s not a revolution,” Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, relator general of the Synod on Synodality, told journalists during a meeting to explain the changes April 26. “Change is normal in life, in history,” he added.
Approximately 21% of the total participation, expected to be 370 people, will be non-bishops, Hollerich explained.
Cardinal Mario Grech, the secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, said the non-bishop participants — among them priests, religious, deacons, and laypeople — “are witnesses of the memory of the process, of the itinerary, of the discernment that began two years ago.”
Grech told CNA after the meeting that the synod of bishops has asked the presidents of the continental assemblies, which took place this spring, and the leadership of the Eastern Catholic Churches, to each submit a list of 20 people, 10 men and 10 women. From these lists, Pope Francis will choose 10 members.
He said the decision to include laypeople as full members does not “undermine” the nature of the synod as a meeting of bishops.
“It will remain a synod of bishops,” he said, “but it enriches all of the Church” to have the participation of others.
The process for electing the bishops to represent the various countries will remain the same, with one small addition, Hollerich said.
Previously, countries too small to have a bishops’ conference did not have a representative at the synod, he said. Now they will each send one bishop.
The other bishops will be elected by their bishops’ conferences. The number of bishop representatives for each country is determined based on the size of the bishops’ conference. Pope Francis must also ratify the elections of bishops as members of the synod assembly.
There will also be participants with a nonvoting capacity, who are experts, facilitators, and fraternal delegates from non-Catholic faiths.
The norms regulating synods of bishops were updated by Pope Francis in 2018 in the apostolic constitution Episcopalis Communio.
According to the FAQ sheet from the Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, the norms continue to be based on Episcopalis Communio “with some modifications and new features to the composition of the assembly and the kinds of participants.”
The document called the changes “warranted within the context of the synodal process.”
“This synodal process, initiated by the Holy Father, the ‘visible principle and foundation of unity’ of the whole Church (cf. Lumen Gentium 23), was possible because each bishop opened, accompanied, and concluded the phase of consultation of the People of God,” the FAQ sheet said.
“In this way,” it continued, “the synodal process was at the same time an act of the entire People of God and of its pastors, as ‘the visible principle and foundation of unity in their particular churches, fashioned after the model of the universal Church, in and from which churches comes into being the one and only Catholic Church’ (LG, 23).”
“It is in this perspective that one must understand the Holy Father’s decision to maintain the specifically episcopal nature of the assembly convened in Rome, while at the same time not limiting its composition to bishops alone by admitting a certain number of non-bishops as full members,” it said.
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After ten years of Francis, his legacy is simply this: No one any longer cares about his his interviews, his thoughts, or his synods. They don’t sound like they echo the message of the Lord, and so there is little point in listening. I’ll stick to Scripture, saints, and creed. If I wanted a ‘living prophet,’ I’d be a Mormon.
Wow, Jow! I’m with you!
This hand-picking of voters totally and completely annihilates whatever claim the Synodality Synod on Synodolatry have had on being a spontaneous outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Rather, from the outset, the Synod has been engineered, controlled, contrived and scripted.
If this has been in cooperation with any spirit, we can definitively conclude that it’s not been the holy one, because the leaders of our Church have done nothing but lie about it since day one.
Now, this ham-handed selection process is definitive. It’s a betrayal of everything they’ve claimed.
“Pope Francis will approve every member advance” sounds like the fix is in for the conclusions of the Synod to Destroy the Catholic Church. Does Francis think the Catholic Church is or should be a democracy? God help us.
Donna, why an autocracy? “including women”, WOW! Women should not be a part of this “synod” even though they are societies heavy lifters. They should remain “pregnant in the kitchen”.
… a break with past custom …
That’s a rather casual way of referring for the Fourth Mark of the Church.
I think this event would be better named the “Synod on Revision of the Natural and Moral Law.” That seems to be shaping up as its actual purpose.
Like a very bad thesis: Come up with the conclusion first and then rig the data to support it.
The reason Jesus calls our first Pope, St. Peter, ‘Satan’, is because Peter is talking and thinking like the secular world talks and thinks. Matthew 16:23 He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”
Always remember, Jesus identifies the secular world as our great adversary ‘Satan’. Anything that even remotely looks like ‘Satan’ is trying to take over control of Christ’s Catholic Church, from Jesus, should be carefully scrutinized. Having the secular world controlling what Controlling what Priests are preaching and teaching, would fulfill Jesus’ sign for His Second Coming, and the ‘Great Tribulation’ which comes with Him. If there is anything that will bring Jesus running to His Bride, the Catholic Church’s aid, to rescue us, it is Satan ruling over His Church on earth.
Jesus prophetic sign for His Second Coming is that we will see: Matthew 24 The Great Tribulation : (after the gospel has been proclaimed around the world) ‘The Desolating Abomination’ ‘Standing in the Holy Place’
After the fall of the papacy’s Papal States temporal power in 1870, Pope Leo XIII was then in tremendous fear of Freemasonry seizing control of the Spiritual power of St. Peter’s Chair as well. In great distress, Pope Leo XIII sent out the Calling All Angels, SOS, Distress, Prayer to Apocalyptic Angel St. Michael the Archangel. The prayer to St. Michael the Archangel was recited after all low Masses around the world from the 1880s to 1964. It is still recommended today.
The 1890 version of the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel, is really an exorcism prayer, put in place by Pope Leo XIII to protect the, “Holy Place” Chair of St. Peter, from the Freemasons, aka ‘Desolating Abomination’, taking control over it.
A portion of, Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel 1890 version
…These most crafty enemies have filled and inebriated with gall and bitterness the Church, the spouse of the Immaculate Lamb, and have laid impious hands on her most sacred possessions.
In the Holy Place itself, where has been set up the See of the most blessed Peter and the Chair of Truth for the light of the world, they have raised the throne of their abominable impiety, with the iniquitous design that when the Pastor has been struck, the sheep may be scattered.
Arise then, O invincible prince, bring help against the attacks of the lost spirits to the people of God, and bring them the victory…
Quoted from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer_to_Saint_Michael…
As if he didn’t have sufficient “votes” already to support his erroneous program. Pack the SinNod to insure the greatest support for the New Paradigm. He never fails to unmasque himself. You might think it an exercise in transparency, or lunacy, but it is simply shameless.
Yes, lets manipulate the synod so that it gets a pre-desired result. Insisting that women be included as voters sounds suspiciously like the Biden administration appointing people based on their sexual equipment/color as opposed to their qualifications. Ditto including “young people” with little to no real life experience or knowledge about the church and it’s history. No doubt the continued road down this addled path has been encouraged by the “spectacular” (sarcasm) results of the recent German synod. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, is a motto of which I am fond. Evidently it’s one the Pope is unfamiliar with. His term in office has been one disaster after another. His remarks and decisions have done exactly NOTHING to increase church attendance or devotion among Catholics, many of whom have chosen not to return since the Church’s disastrous decision to accommodate secular authorities wishes to close the churches during covid. Oddly, I see no effort being made, even a minor advertising campaign, to get them to return. But, by all means, lets move on to women clergy and blessing of gay unions.
In the Catholic Church only 1% are ordained and 99% are lay; 54% are women and only 46% are male. It’s just right to give voting rights to the lay especially women. Pope Francis corrects an mistake and injustice again!
Right on Catherine. “including women”! Afterthought.. women, once more OLD MEN bringing up the rear. WOW!
Jesus had women followers whom he clearly respected. However ALL those chosen to be apostles were MEN. Ordained male priests stand in the place of Christ. Women do not. And please, no tired arguments about him selecting men because of the culture of the times. He broke MANY cultural norms, and had He wanted to break this one , He would have done so. As a woman myself I find I am weary of those women who need constant affirmation. Woman who lack the spine to have confidence in who they are , will also not have that confidence by being put on a committee. As a woman with a graduate education, I dont think I need some other woman sitting on a committee telling me what to think about my religion so she can feel better about herself. The church’s recent decades of experimentation in novel approaches has been devastating for the church.
Any document emerging from this Synod on Synodality is DOA in my book. And consider that view as my participation in the Sensus Fidelium.
Looks like the whole synod is being rigged in order to gain the desired outcome. More confusion and more destruction of the Catholic faith from within. How does anyone at all take the present Pope and his liberal modernist cronies seriously any more?
This layperson would like to have input at this critical moment in our Church’s flex point in human history. I was given the opportunity at the parish level last year. Only the Holy Spirit can move the Church’s heart to choose impactful people that can point us in the right direction. I pray this happens. I will share my experience of a few years ago, about the time the clergy sexual abuse rose its head from below the waters. I was in a retail store early one Saturday morning when I met a man, in his 30s, who appeared to be Middle Eastern he asked me to help him find the salt as he could not find it. Not thinking otherwise I dearly wanted to help this man find the salt. Walked to the adjacent aisle to look for the salt. Did not find it so walked back to the aisle where the man had been. He was gone. I looked all over the store for this man and never could locate him. But what he asked was burning in my heart.
Of the new voting structure, we are reassured that “'[i]t’s a change, but it’s not a revolution,’” (Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, relator general of the Synod on Synodality, told journalists). But, why does this facile branding remind of what also started as a non-revolution in 18th-century France?
In the context of a state/Church monarchy, the three Estates (clergy, nobility, commoners) merged into one voting body–and the rest is history! First the merged/polyglot National Assembly in 1789, then the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (Church be damned!), then the National Convention, and then the Reign of Terror (1792-94). (Long after the later Napoleonic aftermath, came the complete laicization of the state in 1905.)
That went well!… THREE Points:
FIRST, so, what then of today’s new challenge? Rather than the French ancien regime as a Church/State issue, now post-modernity and the Secularism/Church issue—already well entrenched within the Church itself!
SECOND, in any broadened voting, then, why not at least distinguish between synodal (!) bishops voting on certain matters, with a distinct step of consultation on these and other mingled societal issues? As if the sacramental commissioning of the apostles by Jesus Christ (another voter!)—on matters of divine revelation, faith and morals—actually means something?
THIRD, and, as if der Synodal Weg is not already in charge in 2023 and 2024, the “non-synod” which two years ago rejected such clarity and distinctions on the very same question? But, wait, maestro Hollerich placates that the new hole-in-the-dyke voting maneuver is really only a “change,” not a “revolution.”
P.S. Some would even liken the Reign of Terror’s slaughter of the (backward!) Vendee resistors to, say, today’s suppression of the Latin Mass (e.g., 240,000 victims compared to today’s more than 150,000 attendees of the Latin Mass in the United States). But yours truly would not go that far.