The Day of the Vote

This afternoon in Rome, just as this blog is published at 10 am Eastern, 185 men will vote.

There are 184 bishop and priest voting members of the gathering, and one member who is a religious brother. There are 80 non-voting participants, of whom 35 are women.

For most of the Oct. 6-27 event, there is little distinction between voting members and non-voting participants. But only voting members will be able to express formal approval or disapproval of the gathering’s expected final document.

(from Global Sisters Report)

Everybody, almost, thinks that at least the women religious superiors should have been given the vote. My prediction is that this is the last Synod in which no women vote. And after that, the lay members will vote as well. You read it here first.

To get a sense of the progress that has been made, read the column by Sister of St. Joseph Christine Schenk. She organized the postcard campaign to have the worldwide priest shortage addressed at the Synod on the Eucharist in 2005. Married priests and women as deacons never made it into the final recommendations, despite some support for the former, at least. Chris emphasizes how far we’ve come, and I agree with her analysis that it’s not only Francis. It’s having the people on the ground, not in the chancery or the Vatican, influencing the debate. “Today, another generation of bishops — this time pastors who smell like their sheep — are on the verge of prioritizing the sacramental needs of the people of God over esoteric priestly politics.” Amen, sister!

Every picture of the small groups shows women as well as men, indigenous as well as clerical garb. All commentators note the open debate and the respect for all participants. The stories they tell – so many, so many – range from the ecological destruction to twice-a-year Eucharist. So many women, especially, in the panels that were convened every day.

As you read this you probably have access to summaries, if not the complete final document. I am writing on Thursday so I don’t, but plenty of people are speculating what proposals might have been voted on.

Women deacons? Deborah Rose-Milavec’s blog for Day 15 includes a spectacular interview with Medical Mission Sister Birgit Weiler, whom Deb nominates for Pope. (Once lay people have the vote, this will happen.) Deb  “finds it telling” that Weiler “is calling for a synod that focuses on women’s leadership in the Church. She is helping on the writing of the final document and this may be a sign of what to expect.” Maybe not significant change, despite bishops ready and willing to ordain women deacons and eager to praise women working with their communities.

Married priests? Nobody seems to be calling for another Synod on the ordination of viri probati, so my guess is that there will be a proposal for a council to implement this for the Amazon. All I have to rely on is Joshua McElwee’s exhaustive analysis of the reports from the working groups.  You know, group process. How much emphasis is given to compromise and how much to a prophetic response to the need presented will determine what gets proposed. I vote for the prophets.

Environment? Of course. While Cardinal Jean Claude Hollerich, archbishop of Luxembourg, expects both of the above questions to be addressed, he is most strong about preserving the Amazon: “If our planet is destroyed, we can shout as much as we want about married priests or women priests, but there will be no priests needed anymore. So it’s the most important problem and it’s a problem with the greatest urgency.”

I expect strong statements critical of deforestation, mining, luxury goods – meat, especially – with condemnation of destructive colonization now and in the past by North Americans, Europeans, and Chinese. How specific remains to be seen; certainly the participants in the Synod have not been shy in naming those responsible.

Ultimately, the final document is given to Pope Francis. Has he set up this Synod to jumpstart the non-clerical church he wants as he addresses the crisis of the church and the rainforest in the Amazon? Will he go as far as Brazilian Bishop Ricardo Ernesto Centellas Guzman?  “I think that if we do not change structures, if we do not change our way of organizing ourselves, [clericalism] will not change. … I believe Pope Francis had a special intuition in his document Episcopalis Communio when he said that we must invert (the structure); lay people above, clergy below.” This is what happens when you give caring people the opportunity to think new thoughts. May we have the opportunity to make real, structural change – and save the planet as we do it.