In the next day or two, don’t be surprised to see a fresh round of news stories about support for ordaining women at the Synod on Synodality.

It’s a reasonable prediction, given that, earlier today, an advocacy group blasted out an email, obtained by the Register, inviting synod delegates to join them tomorrow at an event promoting the cause.

Hosted by AmerIndia, a network of progressive Latin American Catholics, and entitled “Called to Be a Woman Deacon,” the Oct. 15 pizza luncheon will feature a handful of women sharing why they’re convinced they’re being called to sacramentally ordained ministry (which the Church teaches is not possible).

Sympathetic journalists are likely to amplify the event, making sure to note that the presenters come from multiple continents, possibly even implying that this undercuts the criticism that women’s ordination is a “niche issue” pushed by rich Westerners. They’re also likely to point out the number of synod delegates who are in attendance — that is, if the total is favorable.

In so doing, they’ll be following a familiar script that’s being used to influence the Synod on Synodality — or at least perceptions of it.

Other similar events that have been held on the synod’s sidelines have served as a sort of catalyst for news articles and social media content amplifying a set of progressive goals, giving the impression that they are dominant themes at the synod.

For instance, on Oct. 8 Jesuit Father James Martin’s LGBTQ advocacy group Outreach held an event on the sidelines of the synod. It included a number of LGBTQ-identifying Catholics urging the Church to be more inclusive, including a man civilly married to another man who said that Catholics must “allow love to be expressed.”

Like Tuesday’s AmerIndia event, Outreach’s was closed to the press. But the group released its own report on it, which was subsequently amplified in a story by the National Catholic Reporter. Additionally, Father Martin used his notable social media influence to boost the visibility of the event, which he described as “historic.”

(Interestingly, the Reporter stated that there were more than 70 synod delegates present, despite Outreach not including any information about total attendees in their description of the closed-to-the-press event. For what it’s worth, the theologian and German Synodal Way organizer Thomas Söding, an expert at the synod, wrote of the event in his daily blog that “not many people are making it, but some are.”)

These side events and subsequent coverage of them appear aimed at creating pressure, turning up the heat on synod delegates and Vatican leadership by suggesting that the movement behind causes like so-called “women’s ordination” and altering the Church’s teaching on sexuality is overwhelming, and that failure to move on them will risk appearing non-listening and obstinate.

Despite Pope Francis’s insistence that the synod is not a parliament, a reminder that he reiterated at the start of this year’s Oct. 2-27 session, other hallmarks of political activism are present around and even in the synod hall.

As Katholisch, the German bishops’ media service, reports, “cleverly coordinated speech sequences” in the synodal hall are used to achieve a kind of “thematic focus” during the general sessions, usually amplifying issues like women’s ordination and LGBTQ advocacy.

“The number of speeches on certain topics underlies their urgency,” Ludwig Ring-Eifel wrote about this tactic.

Katholisch also reports that synodal delegates’ mailboxes are routinely stuffed with invitations to side events, which are reportedly more frequent and more progressive than at last year’s session.

These side events are a particularly interesting element at an event dedicated to synodality. An important element of synodality, we’ve been told, is listening, and the existence of a kind of circularity between the highest reaches of the universal Church and the most local levels of the particular Churches.

The Synod on Synodality itself has been an exercise in this kind of circularity, progressing from the diocesan to the national to the continental and now the universal stage, but with regular efforts to get “feedback” from the preceding levels as the process moved along.

The presence of activist groups trying to influence the synod assembly seems to interrupt that circularity. Much like how political lobbying works in the United States, the dynamic seems to favor those groups with the resources, time and specialized interests to invest in coming to Rome to lobby the synod.

In other words, not a lot of ordinary Catholics-in-the-pews.

As a result, the risk isn’t just that certain issues are overblown in the wider perception of the synod. It’s also that other concerns, which likely are more important to a far greater number of Catholics, get overshadowed in the process.

For instance, synod organizers highlighted last week that a mother’s speech on the importance of Christian initiation for youth received the loudest applause yet in the synod hall. But you likely never heard about this speech.

Because “Christian initiation for youth” is not a special interest being advocated on the synod sidelines, and amplified by sympathetic media. So-called “women’s ordination” and LGBTQ issues are.

The presence of special interest advocacy at the Synod on Synodality highlights the tension between the Church’s commitment to listening and the influence of well-organized, agenda-driven groups. While the synodality emphasizes fruitful circularity, lobbying events in Rome risk skewing the discussion.

Synod leadership now faces the question of whether this form of activism disrupts the synodal process, and whether such efforts reflect the authentic voice of the People of God — or simply amplify the views of the loudest advocates.