Pope opens new debates on Catholic Church's future | ABS-CBN News

Pope Francis opened a global Catholic summit on Wednesday (October 2) with a warning that delegates should not seek to foist pet agendas onto the assembly, an apparent attempt to prevent discussions bogging down in divisive issues such as women's ordination. At a Mass in St. Peter's Square to open the event, known as a Synod of Bishops, he told the hundreds of cardinals, bishops and lay people taking part not to treat their contributions at the month-long summit as "agendas to be imposed". Later on Wednesday at the summit's first working session, Francis appeared to respond to conservative Catholics who last year sharply criticised some of his recent reforms of the synod. One major change involved the gathering's membership. In past decades, synod sessions mainly had cardinals, bishops and priests as full voting members. But last year Francis introduced reforms to increase the number of lay members, and included women as full voting members for the first time. Nearly 60 women are voting members again in 2024. Conservative Catholics criticised the decision to include lay persons as voting members, saying it could endanger the Church's top-down authority structure. The pope told synod members on Wednesday he "acted in continuity" with a series of major reforms undertaken by the Church in the 1960s, which emphasized the role of all Catholics in the global institution. He also warned of the danger of "pitting the hierarchy against the lay faithful", adding: "It is certainly not a matter of replacing one with the other. ... Rather, we are being asked to work together". (Production: Oriana Boselli) For more ABS-CBN News videos, click the link below: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgyY1WylJUmgUHWUpi2ioSp4xAP1SmAaf For more Breaking News & Live Coverage videos, click the link below: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgyY1WylJUmgG2ln-vtKXb-oLlGEZc3sR For more latest news and analysis from ABS-CBN News videos, click the link below: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgyY1WylJUmg4pcvfM9a96rbUcLD_0P_U For more News Digital News Raw Cuts, click the link below: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgyY1WylJUmivfD9aJD-8k0SNcMqG2xdA Subscribe to the ABS-CBN News channel! - http://bit.ly/TheABSCBNNews Watch full episodes on iWantTFC for FREE here: http://iwanttfc.com Visit our website at http://news.abs-cbn.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/abscbnNEWS Twitter: https://twitter.com/abscbnnews Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abscbnnews #PopeFrancis #LatestNews #ABSCBNNews