Synod Draft Surprises by Omitting Women’s Ordination, Married Priests and LGBT...

A working document for the final gathering later this year of Pope Francis’s controversial Synod of Bishops on synodality makes no clear mention of female ordination, priestly celibacy or the married priesthood. It also makes no overt references to the LGBTQ+ community.

Presented 9 July in a news conference, the official working document – called an Instrumentum Laboris – for the second Rome-based session of the Synod of Bishops on Synodality later this year, marks an official end to a three-year process. And what may strike some observers as most notable is what the document doesn’t say, as opposed to what it does.

At the close of last year’s initial session, a synthesis document summarising the month-long discussion was widely considered to be a disappointment for those hoping the synod would urge action on issues such as married priests, women’s ordination and the welcome of LGBTQ+ individuals, which were among the most emotional and contested discussion topics.

Those unhappy with that synthesis document will also likely be nonplussed by the working document for this year’s gathering, as it steers clear of similar areas.

On women, like the synthesis document, the instrumentum laboris recognises a widespread desire to see women in roles of leadership and governance more often, and to foster a greater inclusion of women. But it doesn’t offer any specifics in terms of women’s priestly ordination or the female diaconate.

It notes what it said was a general call from bishops’ conferences to acknowledge what women already do, and to further develop these roles, while also calling for greater “exploration of ministerial and pastoral modalities that better express the charisms and gifts the Spirit pours out on women in response to the pastoral needs of our time”.

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