Pope Francis allows women to vote at bishops’ meeting, long a ‘crack in stained glass ceiling’
- Under the new changes, five religious sisters will join five priests as voting representatives for religious orders
- Catholic women’s groups that have long criticised the Vatican for treating women as second-class citizens immediately praised the move as historic
Francis approved changes to the norms governing the Synod of Bishops, a Vatican body that gathers the world’s bishops together for periodic meetings, following years of demands by women to have the right to vote.
The Vatican on Wednesday published the modifications he approved, which emphasise his vision for the lay faithful taking on a greater role in church affairs that have long been left to clerics, bishops and cardinals.
Catholic women’s groups that have long criticised the Vatican for treating women as second-class citizens immediately praised the move as historic in the history of the church.
“This is a significant crack in the stained glass ceiling, and the result of sustained advocacy, activism and the witness” of a campaign of Catholic women’s groups demanding the right to vote, said Kate McElwee of the Women’s Ordination Conference, which advocates for women’s ordination.
Ever since the Second Vatican Council, the 1960s meetings that modernised the church, popes have summoned the world’s bishops to Rome for a few weeks at a time to debate particular topics.
At the end of the meetings, the bishops vote on specific proposals and put them to the pope, who then produces a document taking their views into account.