In my latest column for the Global Sisters Report, I reflect on the recent news about the expansion of voting in the Synod of Bishops/Synod on Synodality to non-bishop members, including women and other lay people. Check it out!
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The
tent is expanding. I repeat, the tent is expanding.
Finally.
Last
week (April 26) the Vatican office in charge of the synod on synodality made a
historic announcement: Women will be able to vote at October's
assembly, the first time women and lay people will be allowed to vote at a
meeting of the Synod of Bishops.
As the
International Union of Superiors General, or UISG, lauded in its press release this week, the move to allow women
to vote "enriches ecclesial dynamism, manifesting openness and readiness
to welcome God's newness in gradually renewing the Church by revealing its full
richness," all while preserving the synod's episcopal nature.
In some
ways this is a logical next step in the growing movement of synodality in the
church. It should have been expected, and still to have the votes and voices of
women acknowledged, affirmed, and uplifted feels like a big (if not also a long
anticipated) step on the journey towards church governance and direction
setting that is more inclusive of the entire people of God.
Anticipating
that the work of the October assembly will include issues surrounding women's
roles in the church and LGBTQ relationships, among a cavalcade of other issues,
it's encouraging to know that the diversity of voices at the table will be
increased. And yet, there is still more expansion that awaits us if we're
willing to be stretched by the Spirit.
"We
are all called to become an active part of a relational, inclusive and
dialoguing Church" Sr. Nadia Coppa of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ,
president of the UISG, commented this week. This includes those few hundred
who will have a vote at the synod and the millions more whose voices have
lifted their voices thus far in the current synodal process.
In an
informative piece of news analysis out this week, Sebastian Gomes of
America traces the growing desire and demand over the last 10
years for women to be able to vote at the Synod of Bishops. Swelling support
speaks to the collaborative model Francis has tried to put forward in the
synodality that has characterized his pontificate, and also the growing
realization that for our church to truly be catholic, we need to listen to the
voices of the people of God.
This
listening will now include the right to vote. Come October, about 1 in 5 of the
synod's 370 participants will be non-bishops, with at least 1 in every 10 being
a woman. Ten percent may not feel like a lot and yet the double-digit figure is
encouraging. As research from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute suggests, "when
just 10 percent of the population holds an unshakable belief, their belief will
always be adopted by the majority of the society."
Of
course, the synod participants are all individuals with their own opinions and
we trust that the Spirit is at work in the synod on synodality. Yet, having
women at the table can only enrich the conversation and the ability for all
participants to vote on the synod's concluding document promises a more
representative mode of participation.
The
matters of concern for women, after all, are matters of concern for the world.
As Sr. Mary Luke Tobin, one of the 15 women auditors (see: non-voting)
originally invited to the Second Vatican Council, famously retorted when told
that she could only attend council sessions of "particular concern"
for women: "Good, that means I can attend them all." I can only
imagine the impact women voting at the Second Vatican Council would have had.
Yet, I
wonder too who else's voices and votes need to be at the tables of power as we
move forward on the synodal way. It's important to have women represented and
to have people from all of the continental assemblies in attendance. Still, I
wonder about LGBTQIA+ individuals … will they be represented? What about gender
nonbinary persons? What about those who remain unseen in our church, those who
are disregarded, and those who we don't envision immediately when we use the
term "the laity"?
So
often when we use the term "lay people," we think of people like us …
but what if we are being invited to expand the tent of our perception to
include those beyond our own circles or preconceptions?
A
contingent of only a little over 70 non-bishop (and hopefully predominantly
lay) representatives at the October assembly makes an expansive sense of
representation difficult at the highest levels of the synod. We certainly can
(and should) rejoice in those whose voices and votes will be counted and
included. The question, considering the size of that assembly though, is how we
are going to enlarge the space of our tents at other levels too? To welcome a
diversity of voices on the ground level of the church, in parish, school, and
social settings.
Where
are there spaces of welcome to be created? Who are new neighbors for us to
meet? How are we being called to push out the walls of our secure church
structures to let the Spirit blow through? Like God the Creator breathing life
into the dust, new life might thus spring forth. We might find ourselves
rejoicing in opportunities we never thought possible, avenues we didn't deem
viable, and situations made more hospitable.
With each new step on the synodal way, surprises are surfacing as our footsteps kick up the dust of new life. This dust shows us that walking the Way stirs things up, a process of mess making that ultimately holds hope. In this Easter season, we're called to rejoice in the One who walks the Way with us, the resurrected Christ who calls us to new life. As we enlarge our tents, let us rejoice in the promise of expansion and continue to lift up our voices so that all the world may hear the good news.
