The Vatican announced on Wednesday that Pope Francis would for the first time allow women to vote at a coming meeting of bishops, an important step toward giving them more say in the affairs of the Roman Catholic Church.

The pope also increased the number of laypeople who will participate next October at the meeting, the Synod of Bishops, which periodically meets at the Vatican to discuss issues such as how to deal with divorced couples. The coming synod is centered on fostering a greater involvement of the faithful as the church moves forward.

The Synod advises the pope and is influential, although only he makes church policy.

In 2021, Francis amended the church’s laws so that women could be Bible readers at Mass, serve at the altar and distribute communion — practices already common in many countries. The latest move is a step forward for Catholic women, but it does not go as far as some advocates for more female involvement had hoped when they pushed for women to become deacons.

The rule changes for the bishops’ meeting were made public on Wednesday in a document outlining the norms governing the synod.

The majority of the participants will remain bishops, but, according to the new norms approved by Francis, an additional 70 “non-bishop members have been added.” Of those, “it is requested that 50 percent of them be women and that the presence of young people also be emphasized,” according to the norms, which added that, as members, “they will have the right to vote.”

Also, five nuns will join five clerics to represent religious orders, and they, too, will have the right to vote. The pope can also add other participants, the Vatican said.

Women had participated as auditors in past synods.

At a 2018 synod, the leaders of groups dedicated to advancing women in leadership roles in the Roman Catholic Church staged protests at the Vatican demanding that the female participants at that meeting be given the right to vote “as equals alongside their brothers in Christ.” A petition with more than 9,000 signatures was given to the secretary of the synod.

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