There they would discuss the date on which its Christian church would celebrate Easter.

That assembly, or synod, would bring the kingdom's church in line with the Catholic Church in Rome.

"Scholars have long thought that Hild was a member of that synod," said Katie Bugyis, an associate professor and trained medievalist in the program of liberal studies at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana.

St. Hild notwithstanding, women have been shut out of decision-making at the Catholic Church's highest levels.

That is, until Wednesday, when Pope Francis ordered unprecedented changes for the Vatican's upcoming Synod of Bishops in Rome: For the first time, women will have a voice - and voting power - at the assembly, as will non-clergy believers.

"I like to think that Hild is still guiding this process," Bugyis said.

'A monumental and welcome step'

The pope's changes to the church's top deliberative body include inviting 70 non-bishop members to attend the October meeting, 10 from each of seven regional conferences worldwide.

The pope mandated that each delegation, picked from religious orders and communities, include five women; he also asked that young people be included.

Jamie Manson, president of Catholics for Choice, a group supporting Catholics calling for reproductive freedom, lauded the move.

"Pope Francis's unprecedented decision to finally open the doors of the Synod of Bishops… to lay people is a monumental and welcome step toward a more just and inclusive church that listens to, reflects upon, and is guided by the wisdom and lived experiences of the people in the pews," Manson said.

"I am deeply grateful to the Pope for making this much-needed change, and especially for his attention to ensuring that half of lay appointees are women."

The move is significant given that among the discussion topics will be the role of women in the church, said Catherine O'Donnell, a professor of history at Arizona State University's school of historical, philosophical and religious studies in Tempe.

At the same time, O'Donnell noted that the number of women empowered to speak and vote is relatively small. The synod's 70 additional participants will represent less than a quarter of the 300 bishops who make up the bulk of attendees.

"My sense is this reflects Francis' efforts to create a more inclusive Catholicism without directly disrupting the gendered architecture of the Church," O'Donnell said.

It's nonetheless a marked change from a synod conducted in 2019, when women's religious orders were invited to attend as observers but not as voting members.

"That sparked a lot of criticism — maybe because it was so clearly just based on gender, not on a division between clergy and laity," O'Donnell said. "This change matters."

Move reflects pope's track record

While it's unclear how regional conferences will go about selecting their female and/or young participants, attendees "will be speaking as part of the process," Bugyis said.

"They're not just going to be silent observers…. I think it's incredibly significant - but completely in keeping with Francis' papacy up to this point." Read more

• Marc Ramirez is career human interest/lifestyles journalist and wannabe food writer passionate about storytelling, culture and subculture, trendsetters and iconoclasts and stories about we live.

Held on International Women's Day, the event at Auckland's St Patrick's Cathedral plaza included a display of well-worn pink shoes.

The event was timed to coincide with midday Mass.

'Be the Change' invited Auckland Catholic bishop Steve Lowe to attend; however, he was unavailable. It also extended an invitation to Dean of the Cathedral, Fr Chris Denham, who, last year, attended in place of Lowe.

"Be the Change' seeks to change the Church by allowing gender equality at all levels of the Church.

By encouraging the Church leadership to enlarge the space of the Church's tent and be more inclusive of women, the group invites the Vatican to walk its own talk.

As well as the pink shoes, the women also pitched a small tent with a sign reading, "Enlarge the space of your tent."

"Enlarge the space of your tent" is the title of a recently released Vatican document for the next phase of Pope Francis' synodal process.

The group says the phrase, "Enlarge the space of your tent," promotes a profound re-appropriation of the common dignity of all the baptised, starting with a desire of radical inclusion where no one is excluded.

In 2022, 'Be the Change' conducted similar events in Auckland and Wellington.

"A vibrant church requires a synodal structure in which all members share full equality by right of their baptism," say the women.

"We chose International Women's Day because we stand with our sisters across the world who seek justice and equality, not only in Church life, but in a multitude of areas of their lives."

Also at the event, 'Be the Change' women gave out key rings, each with a little pink resin shoe, which they say is a tangible reminder of the journey for justice and equality for women in the Church.

'Be the Change' says it has created its own faith community that is helping bring justice, equality and an inclusive Catholic Church.

Core to the group's beliefs is exploring how women can be part of the governance role of the Church and, to this end, it will stand alongside women who feel called to leadership and ordained ministry.

"Synod 2024 feedback from people across the world asks to the end of injustice and inequality for women and their inclusion in ordained priesthood and leadership roles in the Catholic Church," say the group.

'Be the Change' Catholic Church Aotearoa is coordinated by Christina Reymer, Jo Ayers, Louise Shanly and Mary Thorne.

Sources

• Supplied
• Be the Change
• Evening Report NZ
• NCR

Entitled "Enlarge the space of your tent," the document was compiled from Synod submissions from throughout the world: bishops' conferences, the Eastern Catholic Churches, religious orders, Vatican dicasteries and other Catholic organisations.

Cardinal John Dew says this stage in the Synod process is a deeper contemplation of the issues raised in the various national local phases and summarised into the working document. Countries and regions all over the world, including New Zealand, will be considering it for further examination.

"National and diocesan groups will now be invited to take part in this reflection and discernment of the working document," Dew says.

The work of reflecting on 'Enlarge the space of your tent' needs to take place between now and 5 December, so that the New Zealand response can be ready by 22 December.

The Oceania region's bishops' conferences will be having a joint meeting in Fiji in February 2023.

Oceania involves the countries and territories covered by the bishops' conferences of New Zealand, Australia, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands and the Episcopal Conference of the Pacific.

When launching this, the next stage of the Synod on Synodality, Vatican prelates acknowledged the first reports from the faithful are calling for inclusion - for women, for LGBTQ individuals and for the poor.

"Let us just look to each person as a person loved by God and called into being by God," said Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich on Thursday.

"Christ died for this person on the cross. If I am not able to give the space to the table to this person, than I am against Christ."

"Who is invited to the tent? All the people, created and loved by God," Hollerich said. "Our behaviour is sometimes a bit more fragmented, and our love is not as big as the love of God."

The Church must "establish new balances, otherwise, the tent will collapse," he added.

The Catholic LGBTQ advocacy network New Ways Ministry praised the openness of the "Document for the Continental Phase".

They lauded it as "evidence that we are in a new moment of conversation about LGBTQ issues in the Catholic Church".

Others fear the document may be stretching the Catholic tent too far.

Early last month Cardinal Gerhard Müller, described the synod as part of a "hostile takeover of the Church" more intent on transforming it into a political party than about spreading the gospel.

Cardinal Mario Grech, (pictured middle) however, who is the general secretary of the Vatican's Synod office, said the "Document for the Continental Phase" does not represent any decisions made by church leaders.

It is a channel for the many points of view that emerged at the parish level as they were summarised by national bishops' conferences, he clarified.

Source

• Religion News Service
• New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference