Pope allows women to vote at bishops’ meeting for first time

Pope Francis leaves following the weekly general audience in St Peter's Square at the Vatican [Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters]

Dozens of women will be allowed to vote at an upcoming meeting of bishops, Pope Francis has decided, in a landmark move aimed at broadening female and laypeople voices in the male-exclusive 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.