As predicted, the progressive Synodal Path capped off a three-day meeting in Germany by voting for a permanent council of clerics and laypeople to oversee the local Church. This “decision-making body” will decide upon “pastoral planning, future perspectives and budgetary issues” which are not decided at the diocesan level. In the end, 93 per cent of members approved the document, including 88 per cent of bishops.
Progressives however failed to pass a document updating teaching on sexual ethics, with Living in succeeding relationships rejected, but only just. While over two-thirds of participants voted to adopt the text, and while a majority of bishops voted to adopt it as well, as the synod required a two-thirds majority of bishops to pass any resolution, the measure ultimately failed. Still, that a majority backed the measure at all will send alarm bells ringing in Rome.
