Greetings!
This document is a synthesis of the synod reports from the U.S. and Canada and the fruits of discernment from the synod writing team.
The document places a significant emphasis on a desire for greater co-responsibility:
“We need to ground ourselves in the equal dignity of baptism. This is an entry point for co-responsibility.”
It goes on to say: "There can be no true co-responsibility in the church without fully honoring the inherent dignity of women" (paragraph 19).
The paragraph on women continues: "The continental delegates recognized the crucial work women do to keep the church 'alive and healthy.' Nonetheless, delegates also named women as a marginalized group in the church."
"While clarity is still needed around exactly what a fully co-responsible church looks like, delegates proposed the examination of a variety of aspects of church life, including decision-making roles, leadership, and ordination."
While the need for sacramental equality is *crystal clear* to us, it is significant that USCCB-appointed delegates and bishops proposed greater discernment on the ordination of women.
A topic that for many decades Catholics have been told is off the table, is undeniably part of the global discernment of the church — at the highest levels. In the coming months, this document, along with the other Continental documents, will inform the instrumentum laboris — the working document guiding the synod gathering at the Vatican in October 2023 (where we know at least one woman will be voting!).
We know there is no turning back from this movement of the Holy Spirit. And we continue to commit to ensuring that the voices calling for sacramental equality will carry to the halls of the Vatican this fall, during the global stage of the synod, and beyond.
