VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — The Vatican has released a synodal report that proposes a broader participation of laity and women alongside new structures for seminary training, while keeping the 2016 norms on priestly formation.

On March 3, the Holy See Press Office announced the publication of the final reports of two study groups established during the Synod on Synodality, regarding priestly formation and “The Mission in the Digital Environment.” These reports mark the conclusion of the mandate of the two groups. In particular, Group 4 presented a report proposing adjustments to priestly formation “from a synodal missionary perspective” without rewriting the 2016 rules.

“The Final Reports should be understood as working documents, a point of departure and not of arrival,” said Cardinal Mario Grech, Secretary General of the Synod on Synodality.

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Group 4 focused on rethinking priestly formation in light of the synodal process. Its nine members, appointed by Pope Francis, along with those of the other study groups, were made public in 2024. The group includes three cardinals with a manisfestly progressive orientation – José Cobo Cano, Jean‑Claude Hollerich, S.J., and Lazarus You Heung‑sik – as well as Hubertus Blaumeiser, whose presence, together with that of Cdl. You Heung‑sik, reflects a significant influence from the controversial Focolare Movement.

A former member of the Focolare Movement is accused of sexual and psychological abuse of young men and boys, while the organization is known for having developed and practiced a strong emphasis on ecumenism and internal female leadership: according to the statutes, there must always be a woman at the head of the organization. For this reason, Pope Francis has viewed it as a privileged environment for fostering a culture in which women can take on roles of formation and leadership. “This was a revolutionary journey that did much good for the Church,” Francis had said.

Also included in the study group is Sister María Lia Zervino, an Argentine religious, president of the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations and, since 2022, a member of the Dicastery for Bishops.

The synod study group chose not to rewrite the Fundamental Norms for Priestly Formation, promulgated in 2016 by the Dicastery for the Clergy, considering the norms to remain “a valid formative model.” Instead, the group drafted a proposal intended to guide the implementation of both the universal and national norms within what it described as a “synodal and missionary” framework.

The published text states that the synodal journey requires a “conversion of the heart, mind, relationships and processes,” with consequences not only at the personal level but also in communal and structural dimensions. It frames priestly identity in explicitly relational terms and repeatedly situates ordained ministry “in and from” the “People of God.”

The document also emphasises that formation should avoid becoming marked by sacral “separation” from the community, “where irresponsibility, dissimulation and clerical infantilism are more easily bred,” and instead focus on “ordinary human life and stable immersion in the life of Christian communities.”

Among the principal proposals is implementing an alternation between residence in the seminary and periods spent living in “other ecclesial environments,” though these environments are not specified. The report argues that formation should not be confined to the seminary as a single, exhaustive structure, but should include complementary “places and times” aimed at fostering what it calls “integral formation.”

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The document also calls for “shared moments of formation” with lay faithful beginning at the preparatory stage. It proposes that women who are “well-prepared and competent” be included as “co-responsible” participants “at all levels of formation, also within the formation team,” and that their perspective be given due weight in the discernment of vocations and in the scrutiny preceding the conferral of Holy Orders.

The second part of the document outlines operational guidelines. These include a reconsideration of academic curricula in biblical, theological, philosophical, and human sciences so that studies contribute to the assimilation of a vague “relational and dialogical anthropology.”

It also calls for necessary familiarity with the synod’s Final Document to be included in the priestly formation. Additional themes mentioned are a major “ecumenical dimension […] interreligious dialogue and the exchange of gifts with people of other beliefs,” with greater attention to “peripheries” and to the “cry of the poor.”