In a historic move, the Pope has decided to give women the right to vote in the upcoming influential global meeting of bishops in October, the Associated Press reported. The new rules were announced on Wednesday to the norms governing the Synod of Bishops, a Vatican body that gathers the world’s bishops together for periodic meetings, following years of demands by women to have the right to vote. Earlier, women were only allowed to attend the meeting as observers. While men cast the majority of the votes during this gathering.


Catholic women’s groups that have long criticised the Vatican for treating women as second-class citizens immediately praised the move as historic in the 2,000-year life of the church.


“This is a significant crack in the stained glass ceiling, and the result of sustained advocacy, activism and the witness” of a campaign of Catholic women’s groups demanding the right to vote, said Kate McElwee of the Women’s Ordination Conference, which advocates for women priests, AP reported.




The US-based Women's Ordination Conference which had long advocated for women priests has called the reform "a significant crack in the stained glass ceiling," the BBC reported.


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"For years Vatican representatives and bishops resisted, moving the goalpost with every synod as to why women were not allowed to vote. The unspoken reason was always sexism," the group tweeted.



"In the near future, we hope that the synod continues to develop into a fully representative body of the people of God," it added.





About 300 people attend synods, so the bulk of those with voting rights will still be bishops. The change is touted to be remarkable for an institution that has been male-dominated for centuries.


In addition to the five sisters, Pope Francis has decided to appoint 70 non-bishop members of the synod and has asked that half of them be women. They too will have a vote.


The aim is also to include young people among these 70 non-bishop members, who will be proposed by regional blocs, with Francis making a final decision.


“It’s an important change, it’s not a revolution,” said Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, a top organiser of the synod.


According to AP, the next meeting, scheduled for Oct 4 to 29, is focused on the very topic of making the church more reflective of, and responsive to, the laity, a process known as “synodality” that Francis has championed for years.’


Pope Francis has upheld the Catholic Church’s ban on ordaining women as priests, but has done more than any pope in recent time to give women greater say in decision-making roles in the church, as per AP.


He has appointed several women to high-ranking Vatican positions, though no women head any of the major Vatican offices or departments, known as dicasteries.