Conversion is never easy, but participants from all continents must undergo conversion if the synod is to successfully carry out its task, Gerard O’Connell writes.

Pope Francis said he wanted to respond to a "storm of chattering" that had developed around his expansion of synod membership.

Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, the Vatican’s doctrine chief, announced today that “based on the analysis so far…there is still no room for a positive decision” on ordaining women deacons.

Pope Francis has decided that this year, we will be discussing not any series of topics—clericalism women’s ordination to the diaconate, or ministry to L.G.B.T.Q. Catholics—but synodality itself.

“Those who arrogantly claim to have the exclusive right to hear the voice of the Lord cannot hear it,” Pope Francis said at the opening Mass of the Synod on Synodality.

The Catholic Church cannot be credible in its mission of proclaiming Christ unless it acknowledges its mistakes and bends down “to heal the wounds we have caused by our sins,” Pope Francis said.