We Are Church: Colm Holmes does the numbers on the recent National Synodal Assembly in Gormanston

I am a numbers person.

When I walk into a meeting, I estimate the attendance: how many men – women; average age; racial mix, etc. So I looked at the 297 delegates who attended the Irish National Assembly on 17 October 2026:

• 51% men; 49% women
• 32% Clergy & Religious; Laity 68%
• Average age 60

The Assembly voted on 35 proposals using a secret electronic voting system to select one of 4 options:

• Highly recommend [Yes Yes]
• Recommend [Yes]
• Requires further discernment [No]
• Do not recommend [No No]

I counted the votes as either “Yes” or “No” as indicated.

Reading the results

I analysed the results of the 35 proposals as follows:

• 13 proposals received a “Yes” vote of over 80%
• 9 proposals received a “No” vote of 40% or more
• 13 proposals were in between

Having worked in business, my first reaction was that this showed a clear result: Go ahead with the 13 proposals scoring over 80% “Yes” and discard all the others.

I looked at the 13 proposals that got such large approval: Catechists; Formation; Youth; Common good; Healing.

Then I looked at the 9 proposals that got a “No” vote of 40% or more: 5 of them were women’s issues.

Yet women’s issues had featured strongly in every diocese at our synodal meetings.

So why were they being voted down now?

I went back to the numbers.

Who was selected

Our bishops selected all 297 delegates.

And they did make an effort: Almost half of the delegates were women. They also invited delegates from reform groups like WAC and ACI.

But the largest numbers came from the 26 dioceses: each sent between 4 and 11 delegates.

But what about the numbers:

• Dublin diocese sent 10 delegates (Catholic population 837,000)
• Kerry diocese sent 8 delegates (Catholic population 119,000)

That seems unfair to Dublin.

But the biggest anomaly appears to be that the 50% of the Irish population who are baptised Catholics, but who do not attend any church events (except funerals), are not represented at all!

That would explain why, in national polls, the support for women priests gets well over 66%, but this is not reflected in our National Assembly delegates.

Small hopeful signs

There were some small hopeful signs in 3 of the proposals:

• 54% “Yes” to explore women’s ministry, including the diaconate
• 61% “Yes” to ask Rome to change challenging LGBTQ+ language
• 51% “Yes” for a permanent national ecclesial council

What happens next

The bishops are considering the results of our National Assembly without any lay people involved, though Synodality states that laity and clerics should walk, listen, and decide together at all levels.

Will the bishops move ahead with the proposals which got 80% “Yes” votes?

Or will they consider those who were not represented and move forward with the 3 hopeful proposals?

Ireland was the island of saints and scholars many centuries ago – might Ireland lead the way again by promoting equality in our church?