Conservatives have warned that church doctrine is at risk.
Pope Francis has opened a major meeting on the future of the Catholic Church, with progressives hoping it will lead to more women in leadership roles and conservatives warning that church doctrine on everything from homosexuality to the hierarchy’s authority is at risk.
It will not make any binding decisions and is only the first session of a two-year process. But it nevertheless has drawn an acute battle line in the church’s perennial left-right divide and marks a defining moment for Francis and his reform agenda. “This is the first time that women have a very qualitatively different voice at the table, and the opportunity to vote in decision-making is huge.”On the agenda are calls to take concrete steps to elevate more women to decision-making roles in the church, including as deacons, and for ordinary Catholic faithful to have more of a say in church governance.
While they have secured some high-profile positions in the Vatican and local churches around the globe, the male hierarchy still runs the show.Before the opening Mass got under way, advocates for women priests unfurled a giant purple banner reading: “Ordain Women.” He blasted even the term “synodal” as having no clearly defined meaning and said its underlying attempt to shift authority away from the hierarchy “risks the very identity of the church”.
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