Sr. Nathalie Becquart, XMCJ
Women in a synodal Church
WOMEN IN A SYNODAL CHURCH. SYNODALITY AND THE INCLUSION OF WOMEN IN ECCLESIAL DELIBERATION AND DECISION-MAKING Sr. Nathalie Becquart, XMCJ
Nathalie Becquart, Under-Secretary for the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, is a French Catholic religious sister and member of the Congregation of Xavières. She earned a master’s degree in Management at HEC Paris. Becquart studied philosophy and theology at the Centre Sévres of Paris and sociology at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS). Sister Becquart specialized in ecclesiology at Boston College, with research on synodality. She was appointed a consultor to the Synod of Bishops of the Catholic Church in 2019 and named one of its undersecretaries in 2021. From 2008 to 2018 she oversaw the National Service for the Evangelization of Young People and for Vocations (SNEJV) within the Bishops’ Conference of France.
UISG - Bulletin Number 176, 2021
Original in English
4
Synodality has become for many a buzzword! In different countries now, for instance, many initiatives and publications advocate the implementation at all levels of a more synodal Church. That is good news as Pope Francis fosters synodality as a major axis of his pontificate as a new style of being the Church in the 21th Century. As announced on March 7 2020, Pope Francis has chosen “For a synodal Church: communion, participation, and mission” as the theme for the next Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. 1 This means that all the baptized are called to be promoters and actors of synodality, especially women who, with young people, are often the first to call for a more synodal Church. Therefore, synodality comes to empower all the People of God under the guidance of the Holy Spirit so that they can discern in common how to meet the missionary challenges of today’s world. It is a Christian way of life and a practice marked by listening and discernment. It is a spirituality which requires attitudes of faith and trust (in God, in others), of mutual listening and humility, of dialogue and of freedom to seek the truth. It is a matter of developing a true culture of encounter in the service of the common good, in welcoming and respecting differences with the conviction that the Spirit speaks in each person and that we
