A Synodal Assembly of the German Catholic Church has voted overwhelmingly to endorse a call for the ordination of women, setting the stage for a direct confrontation with the Vatican and the universal Church.

Sweeping aside objections from a minority of participants, the Synodal Assembly voted by 174 to 30 to approve a statement that: “It is not the participation of women in all church ministries and offices that requires justification, but the exclusion of women from sacramental office.”

The Synodal Assembly—composed of bishops and lay representatives—is the decision-making organ of the Synodal Path that the German hierarchy has undertaken. The leadership of the Synodal Path has proposed radical changes in Church doctrine and discipline, provoking fears of schism.

Pope John Paul II wrote in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, in 1994, that the ordination of women is impossible, and “this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful.” Pope Francis has indicated that this is “the last clear word” of the Church on the subject.