The official list of the 364 members of the synodal assembly, which will take place in Rome from October 4 to 29, 2023, was published on July 7, 2023. Who are the French selected as eligible voters or as “special guests”? and “experts”, i.e. without voting rights?
Among the 364 members of the synodal assembly, which will take place in Italy in October 2023, six French people – a cardinal, four bishops and a consecrated woman – and two Swiss people – a bishop and a lay theologian – will be entitled to vote. According to the official list published on July 7, 2023, six special guests and experts will also come from France.
Which members of the synod? bishops, archbishops and lay people
The Bishops’ Conference of France has elected four bishops to represent it: Mgr Alexandre Joly, Bishop of Troyes, Mgr Jean-Marc Eychenne, Bishop of Grenoble-Vienne, Mgr Matthieu Rougé, Bishop of Nanterre, and Mgr Benoît Bertrand, Bishop of mend . Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, Archbishop of Marseille, will also participate as a member of the papal nomination.
Anne Ferrand, a lay consecrated person in the Rodez diocese, will also be a member of the synod and will have the same voting rights as the bishops. This person in charge of the diocesan formation service and pastor in Rodez prison also took part in the Continental Assembly in Prague last February, which marked the second stage of the synod after the local stage.
A brother and several experts
Among the “special guests” – without voting rights – are also two Frenchmen: Brother Alois, prior of the Taizé community, who is organizing a big ecumenical vigil in Place Saint-Pierre on September 30 before the synod. And the Dominican priest Hervé Legrand, a theologian specialized in ecumenism.
Finally, four “experts” – also without voting rights – will be French. They are Mgr. Philippe Bordeyne, President of the Jean-Paul II Pontifical Institute of Theology for the Sciences of Marriage and Family, the nun Yvonne Reungoat, the Dominican Father Hyacinthe Destivelle and the Jesuit Christoph Theobald.