Giving women synod vote 'should open Asian churches'

Asian theologians say pope's move is part of systemic changes to make Church a participatory one for all

A papal decision allowing women to vote in the concluding discussions of the Synod on Synodality compels Asia’s national churches to widen the participation of lay people, particularly women, in Church activities, say leading Asian theologians.

A Vatican statement on April 26 said Pope Francis has “approved the extension of participation in the synodal assembly to 'non-bishops' — priests, deacons, consecrated men and women, lay men and women," with voting rights.

It means “the universal Church, as well as local churches, must open their doors to welcome the greater and active participation of women in making crucial decisions about the Church’s activities,” said theologian Father Joseph Ho Thu, who teaches at Vietnam’s Hue Major Seminary.

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Theologians across Asia expressed similar views alluding to how national churches have been excluding lay people, particularly women, from bodies that make decisions on their budgeting, ministry programs, volunteer labor, and internal operations.

Despite several resolutions passed in Church seminars and conferences stressing the need for lay participation, men, mostly clerics, continue to head even the offices or commissions meant to protect women’s interests in dioceses, and the regional and national bodies of bishops.

“The Church must return to its nature that is to make sure there is no discrimination against women as Jesus allowed some women to take part in the activities of the apostles,” said Thu.

Women can't read Church notices 

Bishop Pablo Virgilio S. David, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines, said: “From a man-dominated institution, Pope Francis has really gone to the peripheries, by letting those at the peripheries make decisions for themselves."

The Philippine bishop said he “actually expected it — not just allowing women religious but also lay people to vote. Pope Francis made it clear from the start that this is a different kind of synod. It is not just a synod of bishops but a synod of the whole Church on the topic itself of synodality.”

He said in his country, already at the national and continental levels of the synod, religious and lay people — men and women — have “fully participated as delegates."

The Second Vatican Council had attempted to increase the participation of the lay leadership and Pope Francis' move can be called “an important effort to increase the role of women in Church decisions and participation,” said Sri Lankan Father Reid Shelton Fernando, a former university lecturer and chaplain of the Young Christian Workers movement.

He said an increasing number of women study theology in Sri Lanka. “If they can be given higher mandates, more active participation can be obtained,” he said.  

Sri Lankan parishes have several women lectors, Eucharistic ministers and Sunday school teachers but “there are still some parish priests who do not allow women to read the parish notices and announcements," Fernando said.

Women should get equal opportunities to make decisions with men in various Church commissions and conferences. If women can vote in the Synod of Bishops, it is very important they are given positions, especially in Church media and parish councils," the priest said.

"Some priests say lay people need to be paid when they are involved in Church activities and ministries. But nothing needs to be paid to invite women to Maundy Thursday foot-washing rituals. But there are priests who are not interested in that too,” Fernando said.

Cut patriarchal cultural barriers 

In Pakistan, Father Emmanuel Asi said the papal decision is a “big eye-opener” for the Church in Asia and for the universal Church.

The leading Pakistani theologian said it was an “effort to revisit the teachings of the Second Vatican Council — giving it a pastoral and prophetic reinterpretation.”

Pope Francis, since his election ten years ago, has been “speaking very clearly about the role and character of women in the Church and society,” he said.

“Earlier only Europe, especially Germany, Latin America and the U.S., spoke about women’s equality in the Church … only reluctant voices were emerging from Asia, particularly from the Indian subcontinent.”

The Church in Muslim-dominated Pakistan has been “a bit against this vision” of equality for women because of its socio-cultural milieu, Asi said referring to Islamic restrictions against women.

He said the papal decision pushes us to “work for the teachings of the Gospel that holds women as a complete person with equal rights as a believer. The Vatican has sealed the deal and the bells are now ringing over the world,” Asi said.

Sister Shalini Mulackal, the first woman president of the Indian Theological Association, said although Pope Francis did not allow women into the ordained ministries, he has been consistently taking steps towards the full participation of women in the Church.”

He included women and other marginalized groups in the Maundy Thursday foot-washing ritual and appointed women in key positions at the Vatican, said the nun, who teaches theology in New Delhi’s Vidyajyoti (light of knowledge) College of Theology.

“For me, these steps are not just meant to include women in the Church but also meant to create a change in mindset which is very much needed if in the future women are allowed to be in ordained ministries of the Church, said the nun, a member of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

She said Pope Francis wants to make the Synod on Synodality “a milestone in the Church’s history” and wants it to go “beyond producing a document.”

He wants the Church to function in a “Synodal way — a journeying of all members together. Therefore, it is most appropriate to include lay people including women to be participants with voting rights in the third phase of the synod which is the universal phase,” she said.

Matristics as important as Patristics 

For Indian Jesuit theologian, Father Stanislaus Alla, “it is a momentous step in the right direction” to invite women “to be active participants with voting rights at a Synod of Bishops.”

“Women largely fill the pews in Indian Churches. Arguably India has the largest number of women religious in the world,” he pointed out.

In the Indian context, the papal decision must impel us to take initiatives to audit women’s role in the shaping of the Church,” the Jesuit theologian said.

Actions should go beyond tokenism, and women should be given significant roles in diocesan and parish-level pastoral and financial councils. They should be listened to in the synodal discussions, he said.

Indonesian lay theologian Fransiskus Borgias said women played “great and important roles” in the early Church. But the “superpower of the so-called patriarchy” in the Church “eliminated” women roles “with the consequence of them being forgotten in the Church.”

The papal decision compels the Church in Asia and Indonesia “to involve women, our mothers, in the life and the service of the Church,” said Borgias, who teaches at Parahyangan Catholic University in Bandung, West Java.

He said many Indonesian women, both religious and lay, have advanced in their theological studies and their perspectives are important for the Church’s growth. “Use their expertise for the benefit of the ecclesial-social life,” he said.

“We have only the theological discipline of Patristics or Patrology — the theological study of early Church fathers. But behind the great Church fathers (like St. Augustine and St. Jerome) there were great mothers. The Church also needs to study the Matristics,” Borgias said.

Hope for a better Church

Myanmar's Salesian theologian Father Mariano Soe Naing, also agreed the papal decision is “a historical step” and added, “it is a ringing bell for the local Church in Myanmar to listen to the voices of the lay people including women, allowing them in the decision-making bodies.”

The papal move should “inspire and motivate women in our church to participate in the Church’s activities,” said Father Leonard Rebeiro, professor of Systematic Theology at Holy Spirit National Major Seminary in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka. 

“The participation of women as voters in synods is a landmark decision in building a participatory Church and I believe that this decision will increase the participation of women in the Catholic Church locally and globally,” Rebeiro said.

Rebeiro admitted that women’s participation is “less in the Church” in Bangladesh. But after this papal move “we hope we can change that situation,” the priest said.

Korean theologian, Teresa Choi Hyeon-soon, said voting rights for lay participants was expected as the synod was on synodality, which means “every constituent member of the Church journeying together.”

“From now, local Churches should seek ways to implement this mechanism of synodality, where all the people of God join together,” said Choi who teaches theology at the Jesuit-run Seogang University.

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