In a historic shift, Pope Francis allows women to vote at bishops' meetings

Pope Francis leaves at the end of his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, on Wednesday. (Alessandra Tarantino/AP)

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has decided to give women the right to vote at an upcoming meeting of bishops, an historic reform that reflects his hopes to give women greater decision-making responsibilities and laypeople more say in the life of the Catholic Church.

Francis approved changes to the norms governing the Synod of Bishops, a Vatican body that gathers the world's bishops together for periodic meetings, following years of demands by women to have the right to vote.