The Vatican has published a preparatory document, as part of a global consultation on the future of the Church, which addresses social issues such as the reception of LGBT+ and divorced people, polygamy and the marriage of priests.
The 50-page document, published on Tuesday, is intended to provide food for thought for the “Synod of Synodality”, a gathering of bishops and lay people from around the world whose first session is scheduled for October in Rome and the second leg for October 2024.
This meeting is part of a broad consultation with Catholics on all continents, invited for two years to express their views on the Church and social issues.
The initiative was launched by Pope Francis, who wants to make the functioning of the Catholic Church less pyramidal.
“What concrete measures are needed to reach out to people who feel excluded from the Church because of their affectivity and sexuality”, he asks in the document, referring in particular to divorced and remarried people or people with polygamous or LGBTQ+ marriages.
The document addresses the issue of the female diaconate, women’s access to the role of deacon, a controversial debate within the Church, since currently the diaconate is reserved for men in the Catholic Church.
Another subject discussed was the possibility of married men becoming priests in certain regions of the world.
In 2019, the bishops of nine countries gathered in Rome for the Synod of the Amazon proposed to the Pope to open the priesthood to certain married indigenous people and asked for the relaunch of the debate on female deacons, but the suggestions were not accepted by the Pope.
The document also highlights the “open wounds” with cases of “sexual abuse, abuse of power and conscience, economic and institutional abuse”, and calls for a search for “concrete measures”.
A Synod is usually followed by the pope’s publication of an “apostolic exhortation,” an official document in which he makes recommendations to the faithful.
