The Italian site Messa in latino of April 26 reports this decision in these terms: “In an unexpected coup de force, the Holy Father modified the Apostolic Constitution Episcopalis communio of September 15, 2018 and inserted seventy ‘non-bishops’ chosen, in fact, by him from a list of proposed names,” adding: “It is expected that 50% of them will be women and that the presence of young people will also be valued.”
What can legitimately be seen as “measured political correctness,” and as “a very dangerous precedent for the hierarchical structure of the Church,” given the “abnormal number of participants named by Francis himself (with a document which could be not only consultative, but deliberative)…”
And to be ironic about synodality, according to Francis: “During the synod, the members of the synod are changed until there are only those who vote democratically as the Pope wishes (except one or two, to give the appearance of a discussion).”
In Il Giornale of April 17, Nico Spuntoni wrote: “At the next assembly of the synod, not only will the bishops vote, but – in addition to the five sisters and five religious belonging to institutes of consecrated life who have been elected – 70 non-bishop members will also have the right to vote, including some lay faithful who will be chosen by the Pope from a list of one hundred and forty people, half of whom must be women.”
And he relayed the words of the general rapporteur of the synod, Luxembourg Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, “favorable to the reopening of the debate on the ordination of women”; the latter – who presents himself as “not a great theologian” – hailed, during an interview granted to Corriere della Sera, “the novelties in the composition of the assembly, affirming that “if Paul VI cared above all about episcopal collegiality, Francis has from the beginning placed the people of God at the center. And the Pope says: everyone, everyone.”
In La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana of April 28, Luisella Scrosatti draws the logical conclusion: “If the laity also votes, it is no longer the synod “of the bishops”. She returns to the declaration the Pope made, on March 10, in a interview with Elisabetta Piqué, announcing “ ‘universal suffrage’ in the synodal assemblies of the Catholic Church: ‘anyone who participates in the synod has the right to vote. Man or woman. Everyone, everyone. This word ‘everyone is decisive for me.”
And she adds: “After a little more than a month, the Synod Secretariat, through some changes, announced the transformation of the category of auditors into real members with the right to vote.”
“According to the Pontiff’s wishes, ‘everyone’ will therefore be able to vote. But since, as in every banana republic, the license for ‘everyone’ is given only by the boss, even the Pope has seen fit not to violate custom: he decides the 70 new non-bishop voters. Therefore, synodality, but without exaggerating.”
For greater certainty, the 70 must have satisfactorily demonstrated “their participation in various capacities in the synodal process,” – which is, according to Luisella Scrosatti, a “fundamental condition for understanding whether the candidate has already given proof of absolute loyalty to the system.”
She recalls very appropriately: “The Synod of Bishops is such because it has bishops as members; if a share, which appears to be about a quarter, is not made up of bishops, nor is it linked to the hierarchical constitution of the Church through sacred orders, then it is no longer of the Synod of Bishops, but rather Christians.”
Hence this consequence: “Now at least we know that the document that will come out of the Assembly will simply not be a document of the Synod of Bishops, and therefore that any ratification by the Supreme Pontiff will simply be null.”
And to anticipate a threat that is becoming clearer: “The female priesthood is closer than we think. And the negative position expressed by Francis is not at all reassuring. First, because the Pope has shown that he can calmly say and write one thing and do (or let it happen) exactly the opposite.”
“Furthermore, it is a fact that more than one premise has been placed in the direction the conferral of sacred orders to women: the reopening of the question of the female diaconate, with the establishment, in April 2020, of a new study commission on the subject; then the motu proprio Spiritus Domini (2021), which admitted women to the ministries of lector and acolyte; then the appointment of three women to the Dicastery of Bishops. And now women (and lay people in general) equated to bishops, as members of a synod of bishops. Many, too many Overton windows have been opened.”
Finally, the Italian journalist brushes aside the naivety of being able to reassure herself at little cost: “The general relator of the Synod, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, hastened to declare that this was a ‘significant change, but not a revolution.’”
On April 17, 2023, Pope Francis approved the extension of participation in the Assembly of the Synod of Bishops to “non-bishops”: priests, deacons, consecrated men and women, lay men and women.