🇻🇦♀️ Pope's meeting on church future says it's 'urgent' to guarantee governance roles for women

The move comes following a month of closed-door debate between senior Catholic bishops as well as lay people.

Pope Francis’ gathering of Catholic bishops and laypeople this weekend said it was “urgent” to guarantee fuller participation of women in church governance positions and called for research on allowing women to be deacons to be released within a year.

Progressives had hoped the gathering would send a message that the church would be more welcoming of LGBTQ+ people and offer women more leadership roles in a hierarchy where they are barred from ordination. Conservatives emphasised the need to stay true to the 2,000-year tradition of the church and warned that opening debate on such issues was a “Pandora’s Box” that risked schism.

Francis has allowed women and laypeople to vote alongside bishops, putting into practice his belief that the “People of God” in the pews are more important than the preachers. His call for “co-responsibility” inspired in particular women seeking the restoration of female deacons, a ministry that existed in the early church.

🔗 https://www.euronews.com/2023/10/29/popes-meeting-on-church-future-says-its-urgent-to-guarantee-governance-roles-for-women