The synod and female leaders: an interview with Christine Allen, Director of Cafod

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The Church's Radical Reform

Christopher Lamb

10 episodes

5 days ago

Pope Francis has launched the most ambitious Catholic renewal project for 60 years with a listening exercise that aims to give every member of the 1.3 billion Church a stake in its future. Through a "synodal" process, the Pope is asking Catholics to help reimagine the future of the Church and grapple with questions such as the role of women, evangelisation, priesthood, serving the marginalised and global governance. It is likely to reshape the Church forever.

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Christianity

Religion & Spirituality

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The synod and female leaders: an interview with Christine Allen, Director of Cafod

The Church's Radical Reform

28 minutes 38 seconds

2 years ago

The synod and female leaders: an interview with Christine Allen, Director of Cafod

The synod discussions, whether in Asia, Latin America or Europe, have repeatedly called for the greater involvement of women in church decision-making. Across the world, women are the bedrock of parishes and communities, but the message from the synod is that they often feel invisible. As a result, the synod assembly in the Vatican in Rome in October 2023 will include women as voting members for the first time.

But what does synodal, female leadership look like in the Church? In this episode, I talk to Christine Allen, the Director of Cafod, the Catholic aid agency for the Church in England and Wales. It was founded by a group of Catholic women in 1960 and has since grown into an organisation which helps some of the most vulnerable communities worldwide. Christine is Cafod’s first female director.

In this discussion, I talk to Christine about the synod process and the need to “trumpet the leadership of women” in the church that is already going on. She suggests the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales pull together a round table of women to discuss female leadership as part of the ongoing synod process.

She talks about breaking down clericalism, women deacons and how Cafod is an example of synodality being put into action.

Producer: Silvia Sacco

Editor: Jamie Weston