There goes that sexist, woman-hating Catholic Church again…

Bazinga!     

Details, from CNS: 

Choosing men and women from every part of the world and from a wide variety of professions, Pope Benedict XVI nominated 45 experts and 49 observers for the upcoming world Synod of Bishops.

The Oct. 7-28 gathering will include the largest bloc of women — 10 experts and 19 observers — ever to participate in a Vatican synod.

Europe accounts for the overwhelming majority of the appointees, followed by North America, with 10 people from the United States, two from Mexico and one from Canada. A number of the appointees are also advisers to the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization and other Vatican offices.

The list of papal appointments to the synod was published Sept. 22 by the Vatican.

Experts and observers, who include laypeople, are not voting members of the synod. According to Vatican rules, only priests, bishops and cardinals can be full members who vote and determine the propositions to be presented to the pope at the end of the gathering.

The 45 experts include priests, nuns and laypeople, many of whom are professors, rectors or supervisors of catechetical or pastoral programs. They will serve as resources for the more than 200 synod members as they discuss the theme, “New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith.”

Read more. 

Among those who will be taking part in the Synod is a familiar fixture here at The Bench, canon lawyer Ed Peters.  (Bring me back a tee shirt, Ed!)