Geraldina Céspedes Ulloa, Dominican Missionary of the Rosary, will be one of the speakers on the afternoon of May 7 during the 2025 Plenary Assembly. Born in the Dominican Republic, Geraldina has worked in communities in Santo Domingo, Guatemala, Madrid, and Mexico. She holds a PhD in Systematic Theology from the Pontifical University Comillas and teaches at various universities in Central America. She is also a co-founder of the Women’s and Theology Network in Guatemala and an active member of several theological networks in Latin America.

In her talk titled “Religious Women, Hope in a Synodal Church”, Geraldina will reflect on the crucial role of religious women in the process of synodality within the Church. Her approach is based on the “spirituality of inclusion” and an “image of God” that responds to current challenges, especially in the context of pluralism and integral ecology.

Geraldina will emphasize how synodality must begin in the religious community, overcoming prejudices and promoting inclusive leadership. Additionally, she will stress the need for synodality to respond to the socio-environmental crisis, proposing a “cosmic synodality” that listens to both the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth.

With her intervention, Geraldina will invite religious women to be sowers of seeds of synodality, living with a synodal attitude that transforms both the Church and the world, responding to the great challenges of the present.