Members of a key group that will supervise the Synod on Synodality’s final document have been named, including a Canadian theologian, an outspoken African cardinal and an American religious sister.

Paolo Ruffini, the synod’s communications head, announced the 14 members of the Final Document Commission at a press conference on Oct. 8.

The synod commission includes six cardinals, three other bishops, three priests, a religious sister and a laywoman theologian.

The group will oversee the theological experts who will prepare the final document, which will include concrete proposals about how to expand participation in ecclesial decision-making, enhance the role of women in the Church and promote “sound decentralization” of authority.

The document, which will represent the culmination of the four-year, multistage Synod on Synodality, will then be presented in the final days of the synod for consideration to Pope Francis, who is expected to issue his own teaching document on synodality.

Earlier today, each of the synod’s seven continental delegations elected a representative to serve on the commission.

Catherine Clifford, a theologian from St. Paul University in Ottawa, was selected by the North American delegation. In 2013, just prior to Pope Francis’ election, the Canadian said that “the style of the Church’s governance has to change” in order for issues like the ordination of married men and expanding the role of women to advance.

The African delegation selected Congolese Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, the president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, who rose to international prominence after his outspoken criticism of Fiducia Supplicans, the Vatican’s controversial December 2023 document on same-sex blessings.

Bishop Shane Mackinlay of Sandhurst, Australia, was the pick from Oceania. At last year’s synod session he said he would “certainly welcome” opening the ordained diaconate to women.

Central and South America members picked Cardinal Luis José Rueda Aparicio of Bogota, Columbia, while Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline of Marseille, France, was selected by the European delegation.

Father Clarence Davedassan of Malaysia was the pick from Asia, and Bishop Mounir Khairallah, a Maronite prelate, was elected by synod delegates from the Eastern Catholic Churches and the Middle East.

An additional four commission members were automatic appointments, given their role in the synod, including Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich. The Luxembourgish cardinal, who has previously advocated for changing the Church’s teaching prohibiting gay sex, is the relator general of the Synod on Synodality and will serve as the commission’s president.

Cardinal Mario Grech, the secretary-general of the Synod of Bishops and the synod, is also on the commission, as are Msgr. Riccardo Battocchio and Jesuit Father Giacomo Costa, two Italian priests who serve as the synod’s special secretaries.

Pope Francis also picked three members of the commission directly, including Sister Leticia Salazar, of the Order of the Company of Mary Our Lady, chancellor of the Diocese of San Bernadino, California. Sister Leticia has previously spoken of the need for synodality to continue beyond this month’s session and to include more women in Church leadership.

The Pope’s other two picks were the Italian theologian Father Giuseppe Bonfrate, a member of the faculty at the Jesuit-run Gregorian University in Rome, and Cardinal Filipe Neri António Sebastião do Rosário Ferrão, archbishop of Goa, Daman and Diu in India.

Most of the names were identical to the commission that supervised last year’s final document. Notable changes included Clifford replacing Cardinal Gérald Cyprien Lacroix of Quebec and Cardinal Rueda replacing Venezuela’s Archbishop José Luis Azuaje Ayala.

Additionally, Sister Leticia and Cardinal Ferrão were new among the pontifical nominations, replacing Cardinal Giorgio Marengo, an Italian missionary prelate in Mongolia, and Sister Patricia Murray, from Dublin, from last year.