Participation in the Ordinary General Synodal Assembly Extended to “Non–Bishops”, (priests, deacons, consecrated men and women, laity)

By Sr. Henriette Anne FSSA

 Cardinal Mario Grech, Secretary General of the General Secretariat of the Synod, and Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich SJ, Archbishop of Luxembourg and General Rapporteur of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, in a statement shared with the Vatican Press office, informed the press about the Holy Father’s decision to extend participation in the Synodal Assembly to “non-bishops” (priests, deacons, consecrated men and women, laity).

In their statement, the Holy Father has added an additional 70 people representing various groups of faithful people and they will be chosen by Pope from among a list of 140 people selected by five International Reunions of Bishops Conferences.

“There are no longer auditors. Instead, an additional 70 non-bishop members have been added who represent various groupings of the faithful of the People of God (priests, consecrated women, deacons, lay faithful) and who come from the local Churches. They will be chosen by the Pope from among a list of 140 people selected (and not elected) by the five International Reunions of Bishops’ Conferences (CELAM, CCEE, SECAM, FABC, FCBCO), the Assembly of Patriarchs of Eastern Catholic Churches and, jointly, by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Canada (20 for each of these ecclesial realities)”.

The letter states that the five women religious and five men religious elected by their respective organizations of Superiors General (UISG, for women religious; and, USG, for male religious) will also be eligible to vote. The ten men and women will replace the ten clerics of the institutes of Consecrated Life who attended the past Synod Assemblies.

Speaking on the election process, the Holy Father added that all elections to be held in plenary and by secret ballot by the respective Synods, Councils, and Bishop’ and Conferences must be ratified by the Pope and their names shall not be made public until the Pope confirms their election.

The changes made by Pope Francis on Wednesday 26^th April 2023 further indicate that the Dioceses or Archdioceses without Episcopal Conference may elect a bishop.

“Even (arch)dioceses that are not part of an Episcopal Conference may elect a bishop”.

The General Secretariat of the Synod’s letter emphasizes that “the Assembly will have the opportunity to reflect on its own concrete experience with a view to formulating proposals on how to proceed in the future”.

“This decision reinforces the solidity of the process as a whole, by incorporating into the Assembly the living memory of the preparatory phase, through the presence of some of those who were its protagonists, thus restoring the image of a Church-People of God, founded on the constitutive relationship between common priesthood and ministerial priesthood, and giving visibility to the circular relationship between the prophetic function of the People of God and the discernment function of the Pastors. Thanks to a better integration with the preparatory phase, the Assembly makes concrete the hope that it may “an expression of episcopal collegiality within an entirely synodal Church” (Francis, Address on the 50th anniversary of the Synod).
It is therefore in the role/function of memory that the presence of non-bishops is included, and not in that of representation. In this way, the specifically episcopal nature of the Synodal Assembly is not affected, but rather is confirmed. This is shown first of all by the numerical ratio between bishops and non-bishops, the latter being less than 25% of the total number of Assembly members. But above all this is shown by the way in which the non-bishops are appointed: in fact, they are not elected by some demos or coetus, whose representation they would take on, but are appointed by the Holy Father on the proposal of the bodies through which episcopal collegiality is realized at the level of continental areas, rooting their presence in the exercise of pastoral discernment”.