Women Played an Unprecedented Role at the Pope’s Synod. Will It Make Any Difference?
Last month, some four hundred and fifty Catholic leaders from around the world—cardinals, archbishops, bishops, priests and nuns, professors and students, laymen and women—came together in Rome for four weeks of structured conversations. It was one phase of an effort that began with national surveys of Catholics, in 2021, and will conclude in Rome next fall. The whole thing is known as the Synod on Synodality, after a Greek term for coming together. Pope Francis, who called for the synod, opened and closed the proceedings with Masses at St. Peter’s’s Basilica and, on many days, joined the conversations, which were held in the Vatican audience hall.The daily sessions were off limits to the media, but during the last week of talks I spoke with participants at nearby coffee bars and pilgrim ...
