Despite the addition of lay voting members, the Synod of Bishops will remain a synod of bishops “because the bishops are the majority,” Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich reasons.
Cardinal Hollerich—who as relator-general will be a key figure in the October meeting of the Synod—reminded Vatican News that “there have already been members with voting rights who were not bishops.” (A small number priests, representing religious congregations, took part in previous meetings.) The 2023 meeting will see a much larger number of lay voters, including women for the first time.
Although he emphasizes that bishops will remain the majority of voters, Cardinal Hollerich cautions: “We do not have a synodal parliamentarianism, where the majority decides and everyone follows.” Instead, he says, the Synod relies on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and respects “the collegiality of bishops, responsibility for the Church, the primacy of Peter.”
The cardinal concludes that “synodality is the horizon in which the bishops’ collegiality and the Pope’s primacy are exercised, to seek God’s will together.”