The second session of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops will take place from October 2 to 27. Assembly participants will arrive in Rome on September 29 to participate in a two-day spiritual retreat prior to the start of the assembly.
Among the new synod consultants, Pope Francis chose three women professors.
Dr. Tricia Bruce, professor of sociology at Maryville College in Tennessee (United States) and president-elect of the Association for the Sociology of Religion, and Dr. Maria Clara Lucchetti Bingemer, professor of theology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, are two of those designated.