Vatican names voting and non-voting members

ON TUESDAY, the Vatican announced 26 papally appointed voting members of the 5-19 October Synod of Bishops on the Family, writes James Roberts. Along with 114 presidents of ­bishops’ conferences, 25 heads of Vatican congregations and ­councils, and 13 heads of Eastern Catholic Churches, there will be appointees including Cardinal Walter Kasper, Belgian Cardinal Godfried Danneels, and Italian Cardinal Elio Sgreccia.

Also appointed were Fr Antonio Spadaro, director of La Civiltà Cattolica journal, and Mgr Pio Pinto, dean of the Roman Rota. Cardinal Raymond Burke, prefect of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature, the Vatican’s highest court, will attend as an official of the Roman Curia.

There will be more than 250 participants, including 14 married couples from around the world.

The Pope also appointed 38 non-voting observers and 16 nonvoting experts. Ten of these experts are from Europe (including five from Italy), three from Asia, and one each from Mexico, the Lebanon and Australia.

Many of the observers are heads of Catholic groups, ­including ­natural family planning organ­isations. These include Jeffrey Heinzen, director of Natural Family Planning in the US Diocese of La Crosse, and his wife, Alice, a member of the Natural Family Planning Advisory Board of the US bishops’ conference.

Eight “fraternal delegates” will represent non-Catholic Christian communities. These include Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, director of foreign relations for the Moscow patriarchate.
The theme of the extraordinary synod is: “The pastoral challenges of the family in the context of evangelisation”.