Synod participants lament focus on ‘niche issues’ such as women’s ordination

ROME – Participants in this month’s Synod of Bishops on Synodality, who were chosen by the Vatican to take part in a news conference Friday, condemned what they said is an overly western agenda obsessed with “niche issues” such as women’s ordination, which, they said, takes attention away from other important topics.

Speaking during an Oct. 4 news briefing on the third day of the synod, Bishop Anthony Randazzo of Broken Bay and president of the Federation of Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of Oceania lamented that...