On Tuesday, the Vatican released a working document on the results of a two-year consultation process that included a canvassing of Roman Catholics. The document revealed that many Catholics are urging the denomination's leaders to better include LGBTQ+ people in the church and promote women into more significant roles.
"How can we create spaces where those who feel hurt by the Church and unwelcomed by the community feel recognised, received, free to ask questions and not judged?" the 50-page document titled Instrumentum Laboris asks, according to Reuters.
"... what concrete steps are needed to welcome those who feel excluded from the Church because of their status or sexuality (for example, remarried divorcees, people in polygamous marriages, LGBTQ+ people, etc.)?" it continues.
The document also calls for discussions about giving women more decision-making power and ordaining them to become deacons.
"What concrete steps can the Church take to renew and reform its procedures, institutional arrangements and structures to enable greater recognition and participation of women, including in governance, decision-making processes ...?" it asked.
According to the Associated Press, the document's release comes following a two-year consultation process. Further discussions between bishops and laypeople will be held in a synod this October. A second synod will take place in 2024.
Although the Church stresses that homosexual acts are a sin, same-sex attraction is not regarded in the same manner.
When asked whether the document was unbalanced, Luxembourg Archbishop Jean-Claude Hollerich stressed that the Church holds "no agenda."
"We have no agenda. There was no conspiratorial meeting among cardinals about how we can add progressive points to the Church," Hollerich told a news conference.
"This was a listening experience," he added.
'Meanwhile, other speakers said that the consultation does not mean that the Church would alter its teachings on sexual morality.
The document's discussion on women follows Pope Francis' decision to enable women delegates to vote at the assembly for the first time ever.
In 2022, Francis proposed a landmark reform that would allow baptized lay Catholics, including women, to direct the majority of Vatican departments under a new constitution for the Holy See's central administration.
The pope also named three women to a now former all-male committee that consults him in choosing bishops around the world.
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Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.
