The number sounds like a small revolution. 54 women will attend the Synod of Bishops gathering in Rome for four weeks in October to reflect on the future of the Catholic Church. And for the first time in history, the list of members of this new phase of the Synod of Synods, requested by Pope Francis and published on Friday 7 July, includes women with the right to vote. They will have exactly the same number as the cardinals. A real icon.
In this list of 363 names, the bishops elected by their counterparts in all countries of the world appear first. There are personalities such as the President of the German Episcopate, Msgr. Georg Bätzing, but also Cardinals Timothy Dolan (USA), Giorgio Marengo (Mongolia) or even Cristobal Lopez Romero (Morocco).
Personalities close and far from Pope Francis
This list of elected bishops, which also includes the heads of the Roman Curia and the representatives of the continental Catholic councils, was completed by the Pope, who insisted on appointing 50 members in a personal capacity. Francis chose people close to his views, such as Cardinals Hollerich (Luxembourg), general secretary of the synod, or Cupich (USA), Father Antonio Spadaro, director of the Jesuit journal La Civilta Cattolica, or Father James Martin, an American Jesuit She stands numerous associations of homosexual Catholics, whose presence has already caused a stir.
But this very personal list also includes figures frankly distant from Francis, such as Cardinals Gerhard Müller or Luis Ladaria, both former prefects of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, or the Bavarian Bishop Mgr Stefan Oster, guarantors of a strict doctrinal orthodoxy. As planned, more than a quarter of the synodal assembly will be non-bishops: 96 participants will thus be lay people, religious or priests, but will have the same voting rights as bishops.
Seven French people can exercise their right to vote at the Synod: Mgr Alexandre Joly, Bishop of Troyes, Mgr Jean-Marc Eychenne (Grenoble), Mgr Matthieu Rougé (Nanterre) and Mgr Benoît Bertrand (Mende), Cardinal Jean-Marc Marc Aveline, Archbishop of Marseille – elected directly by the Pope – but also a consecrated layperson, Anne Ferrand, who has already participated in the European phase of this process, and Sister Nathalie Becquart, Undersecretary of the Synod.
A taste of the conclave?
Others will also have their place in the room, among the advisers and special guests, that is, without voting rights: Brother Aloïs, prior of the Taizé community, the Dominican theologians Hervé Legrand and Hyacinthe Destivelle, the Jesuit Christoph Theobald, President of Saint John Paul -II Institute, Msgr. Philippe Bordeyne, and the former Superior General of the Salesians, Sister Yvonne Reungoat.
This synodal assembly, consistently presented by its organizers as a spiritual step, will also bring together 54 cardinals, almost half of the future pope’s electoral college. What makes him feel like he’s before the conclave?