The Catholic Church must take concrete steps to promote women to decision-making positions and to strive for the “radical inclusion” of people who identify themselves by their sexual preferences or assumed gender, according to the blueprint for the forthcoming “Synod on Synodality”.
The Instrumentum Laboris, or working document, was published by the Vatican ahead of the opening of the first of two sessions of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October.
A synthesis of responses from worldwide consultations on possible responses by the Church to contemporary challenges discovered a “unanimous” and “crucial” demand for women to be allowed to access positions of responsibility and governance, again raising the question of whether women will be admitted to the Catholic diaconate.
