Vatican meeting approves women at the decision-making table

VATICAN CITY – A one – month meeting of Catholic bishops marked by the claim of women 's rights ended Saturday with delegates claiming that a place for women at the decision – making table of women' s rights. church was a "duty of justice" and that the church as a whole must recognize the inevitable "urgency". change."

Pope Francis had convened the summit of church leaders to discuss ways to better serve young people and help them find their vocation in life. But the synod was quickly followed by debates on issues of particular interest to young people in many parts of the world: the scandal of clergy sexual abuse, respect for gays and women's rights.

The question of women was particularly worrying since only seven nuns were invited to participate in the synod alongside 267 cardinals, bishops and priests. None of the women had the right to vote on the final document.

A petition launched on the sidelines of the synod requesting that religious superiors be elected collected some 9,000 signatures, but the reference in a project to gender disparity in future synods was deleted in the final document.

The language that was retained, however, was strong and included one of the few direct recommendations throughout the 60-page document.

"The synod recommends that everyone be made aware of the urgency of an inevitable change," he said. She called for a greater presence of women in ecclesial structures at all levels, including positions of responsibility, while respecting the fact that the priesthood remains only for men.

"It is a duty of justice that finds its inspiration in Jesus' relationship with the men and women of his time, as well as in the importance of the role of some women in the Bible, in the history of salvation and in the life of the church, "reads the document.

The doctrine of the Church reserves the priesthood to men, since the apostles of Christ were men. Women have often complained of having a second class status in the church. The first Latin American pope in history has vowed to change that, but he has done little and does not count any woman among his own advisers.

Paragraphs referring to the role of women in the church were among the most disputed in Saturday's final vote. But the full text was adopted with only the paragraph referring to homosexuality and "sexual inclinations" not receiving enough votes to threaten passage. In the end, it was passed with 178 votes in favor and 65 against, approved with 12 yays less.

The final text makes no reference to the "LGBT" faithful, who had been used in the preparatory document in a first for a Vatican text. Although the term was rejected for the final document, delegates voted not to delete this initial text but to consider it as "complementary", suggesting that the term LGBT is officially maintained.

On mistreatment, the bishops stopped giving direct community apologies for the decades of sexual abuse and concealment committed by priests and their superiors against young people. While this section of the document titled "Seeking Forgiveness," the text submitted to the bishops' vote simply indicated that no amount of repentance can heal the trauma caused to the victims. Thirty bishops voted against it.

Delegates said many bishops, especially African ones, had rejected the focus on the issue of abuse during the meeting, which took place while the Catholic hierarchy at the Vatican, in the United States, in Chile and elsewhere, was again criticized for mismanagement. scandal.

The bishops thanked the victims for their courage to denounce their abuses and said the problem, with the necessary sanctions and actions, "could really be an opportunity for reform at the time".

But Francis had a very different message when he addressed the synod after the text approval. He complained that the church was "persecuted" and "stained" by accusations of the devil – an apparent hint at claims by a former Vatican ambassador that Francis himself had concealed himself a sexual predator.

Francis deposed former Cardinal Archbishop Theodore McCarrick of Washington in July after an investigation by the American church determined that it was credible to molest an adolescent altar boy. But Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano claimed that Francis had already reinstated McCarrick's restrictions imposed by the previous pope.

Francis said that the time had come to take up the defense of the church, which he called "mother".

"It's a hard time because the accuser, through us, is attacking the mother," he said. "And you do not touch the mother."

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Winfield reported from New York.