The Pope approved expanding the participation of non-bishops to full members, no longer just as auditors. The same Pope will choose 70 representatives of the people of God for the October meeting from a list of names coming from the Churches of all the continents. The episcopal character will be guaranteed by the fact that the bishops will constitute 75% of the Assembly.
These are the changes to the composition of the Synod that Pope Francis has wanted and that today the General Secretariat of the Synod has officially announced. The most important change refers to the presence as full members of 70 non-bishops representing the entire People of God (priests, consecrated men and women, deacons, lay faithful) of the local Churches. They will replace (and expand) what until now was the category of auditors, that is, figures chosen directly by the Pope to participate in the work of the Synods, but without the right to vote. Now, instead, these 70 figures will be effective members of the Assembly. They will continue to be chosen by the Pope, but from a list of 140 people identified (and not chosen) by the seven International Meetings of Episcopal Conferences and the Assembly of Patriarchs of the Eastern Catholic Churches. For Asia, therefore, the FABC will present the Pontiff with a list of 20 names. In choosing him, 50% must be women and the presence of young people will also be valued. To choose them “will take into account not only their general culture and prudence, but also their knowledge, both theoretical and practical, as well as their participation in various functions in the synodal process.” To these “representatives of the people of God” could be added other non-bishop members of the Synod independently appointed by the Pope.
Two other novelties refer to the representatives of the male and female religious congregations and the departments of the Roman Curia. The first will be five religious and five religious belonging to Institutes of Consecrated Life, elected by the respective organizations that represent the Superiors General, and they will also be full members of the Synod. As for the representatives of the departments that will participate, they will be those indicated by the Pope.
All non-bishop members will join the bishops elected by each Episcopal Conference, the number of which varies depending on the number of bishops and dioceses. The decision to also grant the right to vote to non-bishops – taken by Pope Francis – confirms the method of participation of all the people of God recommended by the pontiff for the synodal journey. But as a note issued by the Vatican specifies, this does not want to undermine the episcopal nature of the Synod: for this reason the number of non-bishops will continue to be less than 25% of the composition of the Assembly. “This decision -explained the General Secretariat of the Synod- reinforces the solidity of the process as a whole, incorporating into the Assembly the living memory of the preparatory phase, through the presence of some of those who were protagonists, thus restoring the image of a Church-people of God, founded on the constitutive relationship between the common priesthood and the ministerial priesthood, and giving visibility to the circular relationship between the prophetic function of the People of God and that of pastors’ discernment”.
