Pope Francis to open major Vatican summit, but hot issues on hold

By Joshua McElwee

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis will open a month-long summit of global Catholic leaders on Wednesday but it is likely to defer any decision on divisive issues such as women's ordination and blessings for same-sex couples until next year.

The gathering, which includes cardinals, bishops and lay people from more than 110 countries, will vote on a final text in late October that may suggest doctrinal changes. But most of the hottest issues have been assigned to study groups that will make final reports to Francis, who is 87, only next June.

The assembly, known as a synod, drew fierce criticism from conservative critics of Francis last year.

Ahead of that event, in an unusually strong letter from high prelates to the leader of the world's 1.4 billion Roman Catholics, five cardinals publicly asked Francis to restate that the Church could not ordain women or bless same-sex couples.

This year, likely due to the shifting of major topics from the floor of the general assembly to the study groups, there has been little conservative criticism, even from usually vocal right-wing Catholic media outlets. But Catholics hoping for changes to the Church's teachings are expressing frustration.

A group that supports LGBTQ Catholics, DignityUSA, said the shunting of issues on to study groups "defers the possibility of substantive change".

"Any hope of timely attention to the real crises LGBTQ+ people are experiencing has been crushed," said Marianne Duddy-Burke, the group's executive director, who was part of a delegation of global LGBTQ Catholics that met Francis during the 2023 synod.

DOUBTS OVER SLOW PROCESS

A leading advocacy group for survivors of abuse by Catholic clergy also expressed disappointment.

Anne Barrett Doyle, from the abuse tracking group BishopAccountability.org, said the final text of the 2023 assembly "woefully under-emphasized" the way the abuse scandals have harmed the Church's moral standing.

"The synod feels irrelevant to clergy sex abuse," she said. "There's a sense of deep discouragement that this is where we are in 2024."

The synod meeting includes 368 "members" with voting rights, mostly cardinals and bishops, but Francis has introduced reforms to increase the number of lay members. The 2023 synod was the first to include women as full voting members. Nearly 60 women are members again in 2024.

Also included are 16 "fraternal delegates" from other Christian denominations, who attend as observers. Discussions take place behind closed doors.

The 2024 assembly is scheduled to vote on its final document on Oct. 26. The pope will then decide whether to issue his own text, with possible doctrinal changes, but probably only after receiving the study group reports in mid-2025.

Synod officials have acknowledged that some Catholics are frustrated with the gathering's long time frame.

Rev. Timothy Radcliffe, a former leader of the global Dominican religious order who is leading a two-day retreat for synod members this week, said "many people, including participants in this synod, have expressed their doubts as to whether anything is going to be achieved".

(Reporting by Joshua McElwee; Editing by Gareth Jones)