Childless (mostly White) Men to define Family -Synod on family could help define Francis’s Papacy
The diplomatic complexities that he navigated on that journey may come to seem relatively simple compared with the journey that awaits for representatives of the world’s 1.2bn Roman Catholics at the Synod on the Family.
It starts on 4 October and ends on 25 October, following on from last year’s Extraordinary Synod.
It has been hailed as a key test of this Papacy, and of the Pontiff’s own authority and direction for the Church.
The meeting will involve 279 bishops from more than 120 nations, as well as 17 married couples and 17 auditors, as well as other non-voting representative.
Intense lobbying
Ahead of it, Roman Catholic traditionalists and reformers have been lobbying: releasing books, petitions, interviews and articles seeking to outline their positions.
Gay Catholics, female theologians and churches in Africa opposed to homosexuality have all sought to communicate their differing hopes.