Members of a Vatican council poised to play an important role in implementing the results of the Synod on Synodality — including an increasingly prominent American bishop — were elected Oct. 23 in Rome.

Delegates at the synod, including 96 non-bishops, voted to select 12 bishops to serve on the Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod in the closing days of this year’s session, according to a Vatican statement.

Among those elected was Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas. As the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops’ doctrinal head, Bishop Flores has played a critical role in facilitating the diocesan and national stages of the Synod on Synodality in the U.S. Pope Francis also picked him to serve as one of nine “presidential delegates” at the synod sessions in Rome in 2023 and again this year.

Bishop Flores replaced Cardinal Joseph Tobin of the Archdiocese of Newark as the only American member of the council, which is chaired by the Pope.

Pope Francis will select an additional four members of the council, and the head of the Roman dicastery “competent for the theme of the next Synod” will also be included. The theme for the next synod is expected to be announced sometime during this weekend’s conclusion of the Synod on Synodality.

The ordinary council is tasked with preparing for the next gathering of the Synod of Bishops, which typically happens every three years. For instance, the body is responsible for approving the Instrumentum laboris, or working document, that guides each synod assembly. 

But in a new wrinkle, the Vatican said in a press release that the council will play a “fundamental role…in the implementation of this synodal process on synodality.” The Synod on Synodality’s final document is expected to touch on topics like the establishment of continental assemblies, the synodal reform of the Roman Curia and enhanced solidarity between different local Churches — all areas the ordinary council could be involved in executing.

The elected bishops were chosen along geographics lines, with two each from North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia, and one apiece from Oceania and the Eastern Catholic Churches.

In addition to Bishop Flores, Bishop Alain Faubert of the Diocese of Valleyfield, Canada, was chosen from North America.

Archbishop Andrew Fuanya Nkea of the Archdiocese of Bamenda, Cameroon, was the only member of the previous ordinary council who was reelected. He is joined from Africa by Cardinal Dieudonné Nzapalainga, Archbishop of Bangui, Central African Republic.

The two Europeans on the council are Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline of the Archdiocese of Marseille, France, and American-born-and-raised Archbishop Gintaras Grušas of the Archdiocese of Vilnius, Lithuania, who is also president of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences.

Cardinal Luis José Rueda Aparicio of the Archdiocese of Bogotá, Colombia, and Archbishop José Luis Azuaje Ayala of the Archdiocese of Maracaibo, Venezuela, will represent Latin America, while Cardinal Filipe Neri Do Rosário Ferrão of the Archdiocese of Goa and Damão, India, and Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of the Diocese of Kalookan, Philippines, were selected from Asia.

And archbishop Timothy Costelloe of the Archdiocese of Perth, Australia replaced Archbishop Anthony Fisher from Sydney as Oceania’s pick, while Patriarch Youssef Absi of Antioch, head of the Greek Melkite Catholic Church, will represent Eastern Catholics.

In total, the ordinary council that will prepare for the next Synod of Bishops assembly will have 17 members, an increase from the typical 16.

The Synod of Bishops was established in 1965 by Pope Paul VI in order to prolong Vatican II’s experience of collegiality by having bishops from around the world regularly gather in Rome to advise the Pope on a given topic. Pope Francis has held synods on the family, young people, the Amazon, and, of course, synodality.