who is Anne Ferrand, the only French participant with voting rights?

Like last year, Anne Ferrand stops everything this October. His work in the service of continuing education in the diocese of Rodez (Aveyron), his theology studies at the Loyola Faculties in Paris, his group of people in precarious situations, contemporary calligraphy (“the artistic expression of my prayer”) , the swimming pool…: she is summoned to Rome to participate in the Plenary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on synodality, from October 2 to 27. In short, the most important event in the Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965).

Alongside nearly 270 bishops from five continents and a hundred other lay people, men and women, she will vote on a text proposing to the Pope decisions regarding the synodal transformation of the Church: the place of women, lay ministries, the formation of the baptized, the way of discerning and deciding… This after more than three weeks of work listening to the Holy Spirit, during which the synodal delegates will exchange according to the “conversation in the Spirit”, method already proven in 2023. Throughout the past year, Anne Ferrand has been asked once or twice a month by parishes and religious congregations to testify to this “experience of listening to what the Lord wants”.

“Blessed are the poor”

Listening to the Word, discernment, commitment: these marks of Ignatian spirituality have been familiar to him since childhood, with the Eucharistic Youth Movement (MEJ). Having become a school teacher in Toulouse (Haute-Garonne), the young woman had great desires: “I thirsted to receive the beatitude “Blessed are the poor”. » She went to Lima (Peru), where she experienced “a time of revelation of the Gospel” among the inhabitants of the slums. On her return, she founded an association to support children and young people in Peru. “The poor have much more to give us than what we give them,” learned from experience this 45-year-old woman, whom those around her describe as “patient, gentle, very sensitive,” but also “determined and intelligent.” “. This brings her closer to the South American pope, whose insistence on the necessary proximity of the Church to the poor is known, under penalty of losing its identity.