Back when the synod on synodality was only an item on Pope Francis’s to-do list, I wrote a column saying conservative Catholics like myself should get on board the pre-synodal bandwagon instead of standing on the sidelines making negative comments. Otherwise, I said, the synod on synodality could fall into liberal hands.
With the first assembly of the synod fast approaching in October, that is still a matter of concern. But, however that may be, for the longer pull it remains reasonable to hope that clear thinking will make a difference as the Church struggles to assimilate synodality into its decision-making process. I offer what follows with that hope in view.
Speaking last month to the American bishops in Orlando, then-Archbishop, now newly named Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the papal nuncio, declared the purpose of synodality to be “to make our evangelization more effective.” That sounds great. But evangelization of whom on behalf of what?
The synodal Church, we often are told, will be a body that directs its evangelizing energies, especially to people on the “peripheries.” As Archbishop Pierre said, “If they ‘come to church’ to encounter Christ, it will be because Christ has first come to them.”
As to the content of the evangelizing message, I find a powerful answer in Pope St. John Paul’s memorable 1998 encyclical Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason). There, the Pope identified certain “fundamental questions” said to be “pervasive” in all times and places: “Who am I? Where have I come from and where am I going? Why is there evil? What is there after this life?”
But do people really ask themselves these questions today? And if the honest answer is that in many cases it doesn’t look like it, isn’t that because contemporary secularism prevents countless people from thinking seriously by immersing them in a sensate culture of images, sounds, and frivolous messages that leave them too distracted to come to grips with matters of ultimate importance?
Supposing that is a reasonably correct reading of the situation, it points unavoidably to the conclusion that the fundamental evangelizing task for a synodal church must be to pierce this distracting cultural fog, raise the old questions of meaning and value out on the peripheries, and announce anew that today as always the answer to them is Christ.
In a notable article “Synodality and the Second Vatican Council”, published in a journal called The Thomist, Catholic University of America theologian Christopher Ruddy makes the important point—largely overlooked, it seems, by synodality’s conservative critics—that “the ecclesial renewal set in motion by the council is now reaching a new, mature, and perhaps decisive stage.”
But for the synodal process to produce the good fruit at which its sponsors aim, Ruddy writes, certain things—he calls them “prunings”—are necessary. He names three.
First, “the synod and its preparation need to be transparent and free from manipulation.”
Second, “’Dialogue’ and ‘inclusion’ are not stand-alone, self-evident concepts but must respect the doctrinal boundaries established by the scriptural canon and rule of faith.”
Third (and “most fundamentally”), synodality “must not be conscripted into service as a cover for doctrinal change…on matters of human sexuality, sacramental discipline and doctrine, and ordained ministry.”
Ruddy concludes that the “full vision of Vatican II” contains “both helpful stimuli and useful correctives to the ongoing synodal process.” Let us hope—and pray—that both in October and beyond, the managers of synodality will draw freely on those sources and show proper respect for their integrity.
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Synodality and my Parish
In my parish, – St. Anne -St. Augustin Parish in Manchester, N.H.— we do not have a parish council.
The pastor seems to be so overwhelmed with the attempt to provide liturgical services, that he does not have the time or energy to help organize a parish council.
It seems to me that synodality implies that we must have a parish council or unify our resources with another parish so that we will be able to do so.
Vatican II recommended parish councils; synodality reinforces that recommendation.
If not now when? How will we ever reform outmoded , racist and sexist doctrine if we simply imagine that nothing fundamental should ever change.
Jesus brought change to Judaism and Francis to christianity……so in the spirit of Jesus and Francis recognize only change brings growth
What planet did you come from?
I couldn’t help but notice her depicting ‘Christianity’ as a common noun. She is from the planet according to the word of the reverend Ms. Angela White, Roman Catholic ordained prieste/SSSSSSSSSSS\, excommunicated ex-wife of ex-governor of O-HI-O.
Oh, I see you are the excommunicated “Reverend” Dagmar Celeste of WomenPriests:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagmar_Braun_Celeste”
“In 2002, Celeste announced that she had secretly been ordained a priest of the Roman Catholic Church under the pseudonym of “Angela White”. She was one of seven women, the ‘Danube Seven’, ordained by Argentinian independent Catholic bishop Rómulo Antonio Braschi on a boat on the Danube River, making her the first female American Roman Catholic to call herself a priest. Celeste was subsequently excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church, which does not recognize the validity of the ordination of women.[3][4].”
Paul: This is improper and unhelpful. Arguing ad hominem is poor and nasty. Let’s talk about the position or idea rather than the person.
What is improper and unhelpful is refusing to deal with objective reality and suppressing the truth as you propose to do. There is no “ad hominem” in pointing out the irrefutable, objective reality that Dagmar Celeste has been excommunicated latae sententiae with a formally declared imposition of excommunication by the Roman Catholic Church. Her “position or idea” on the ordination of women is formally, explicitly heretical and therefore schismatic. Do you seriously suggest that you support her “position or idea” that the Church’s infallible magisterium on this point is “outmoded , racist and sexist doctrine”? What planet are you from?
Just consider. Liberal protestant churches have spent a good portion of the 20th Century doing what you are proposing. How did that work out? It’s a cautionary tale. A progressive church is a moral, spiritual, and intellectual wasteland. Take a pass on that option, Catholic Church. There’s no going back once you start down that path.
Agree fully with your perceptive comment, Athanasius. Following the lead of progressive Protestant churches whose gospel is inclusion and dialogue sans doctrine is the slippery slope to irrelevance. After all, who needs a church-created wasteland when progressive secularism already provides one.
“Jesus Christ is Lord.” Philippians:2,11. Not interested in any synod that doesn’t proclaim this truth.
Jesus is the Son of God. His coming was predicted in the Old Testament as was the New and Eternal Covenant upon which He established His Church. Pope Francis is not God. There are no predictions in the New Testament that authorize a wholesale revision of the faith. There are warnings about the coming of false prophets and wolves.
The death of any individual is certainly a radical change in their status. But it certainly shouldn’t be construed as “growth”. That’s the problem with slogans and aphorisms dominating the cultural airwaves these days – they’re too often imbecilic.
Dagmar Celeste is a very unusual name and it reminded me of the wife of Richard Celeste the former Governor of Ohio who had that name. Her past includes this which I clearly remember “….In 2002, Celeste announced that she had secretly been ordained a priest of the Roman Catholic Church under the pseudonym of “Angela White”. She was one of seven women, the “Danube Seven”, ordained by Argentinian independent Catholic bishop Rómulo Antonio Braschi on a boat on the Danube River, making her the first female American Roman Catholic to call herself a priest. Celeste was subsequently excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church, which does not recognize the validity of the ordination of women….”. (Wikipedia)
Speaking of prunes, after ten years of endless synodaling, forgive me for complaining about my theological indigestion. Of course, I too am hoping for relief this October. But as a realist, I don’t expect it.
Anyway, perhaps the problem is my understanding of theosis?
“Speaking last month to the American bishops in Orlando, then-Archbishop, now newly named Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the papal nuncio, declared the purpose of synodality to be ‘to make our evangelization more effective.’ That sounds great. But evangelization of whom on behalf of what?”
The stage-managed charade of synodality will do for evangelization what Vatican II’s modernist-weaponized aggiornamento did to produce the promised “new Pentecost”. To that extent self-identified CUA theologian Christopher Reddy is quite right in saying: “the ecclesial renewal set in motion by the council is now reaching a new, mature, and perhaps decisive stage” . . . of continuing catastrophe and collapse.
Re: “only change brings growth.” That may happen, but keep in mind that change is not synonymous with improvement.
Regarding the fundamental questions, “Who am I? Where have I come from and where am I going?” Many, many years ago I learned from my 3rd grade catechism – “Who made me? God made me. Why did God make me? To Know, love and serve him in this world and to be happy with him in the next.” Post Vatican II it was stated that this was too formulated. But I can tell you that if you ask many Catholic high School students the question, “Why did God make you?” you get a blank stare.
I don’t see that “contemporary secularism” is the major problem. We have a couple of generations that have not been taught the fundamentals of the faith. Why is that? We are often told not to point fingers. But, to solve a problem you first have to correctly identify it. The Bishops are the chief teachers.
I find myself approaching the conclusion that the Catholic Christianity into which I was baptized eighty-five years ago is about to self-destruct in the current complex efforts to orchestrate a strange new aura of infallibility for what I fear to be the current Pope’s vision of a globalist “Synod-on-Synodality”-type of Church in which the timeless truths of the Catholic Faith are scrapped in favor of times-conscious, trendy untruths, created in the chaos of fickle human social, political, and religious preferences—turning God into an image and likeness of—Us !
https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2023/07/what-aggressive-paradoxical-imitation.html?m=1
It was said of this synod on synodality that it would, inter alia, be constitutive of the Church and it would be “permanent”.
It is taking place when the Pope declared that it was never intended for Opus Dei to have a bishop. Its getting started by having a bishop (allegedly) came out of a misunderstanding. And the real Opus Dei (supposedly) “belongs among the clergy”, effectively as “under all bishops with the Pope”.
How then is this synod going to be constitutive and achieve permanence?
How can the bishops in it produce anything from the Holy Spirit, at all, when there is some kind of selectivity going on about what to take from the Spirit?
The October Synod looks like a bunch of folks who can’t learn unless they “pee on the electric fence for themselves.” (Will Rogers)
Parish councils and synods are supposed to be suggestions, dialogue and inspirations but putting all into question, Magisterium tradition, even talking about reinterpreting scripture and God’s commandments, in favor of a majority (?). Synod councilors, bystanders, lay people, participants, some clergy with seriously little or any faith in the Church’s proclaimed truth; it seems only a distraction for Bergoglio and Fernandez to draw out of it verification and corroboration of their own reform that they have been stalking in their pursuit to “reform” the Holy Catholic Apostolic Church the Mystical Body of Christ into a reinterpretation of the Word of God and the commandments with their focus on the 6th commandment which they already defy. Ignoring the teaching of the Apostles and the foundation of the Chruch Fathers, the enormous faith deposit and the rich holy witness of 2000 years of saints and martyrs cannot change and will still be victorious until the last day of time. Bergoglio and Fernandez endorse a global brotherhood (“some get communion and others don’t…the pope will change that”) and if we let them they will distribute the Holy Flesh and precious Blood of Christ to anyone. It’s not about fraternities’ feel goods; it’s not about us at all! It is about giving glory to God! “A prudent lover does not consider so much the gift of the lover as the love of the giver.” “Ever ancient ever new….Oh how glorious is the kingdom in which your saints deign with you, O Lord. For there is infinite, unfading joy, gladness without sorrow, health without a pang, life without toil, light without darkness, life without death, where the vigor of age knows no decay, and beauty withers not, nor does love grow cold, nor joy wane away, for there we look evermore upon the face of Lord God of Hosts….I embrace in the fullness of charity him with whom I remained united by all the love of my heart; it is him I praise, him I bless, him I adore, him, my God, who lives forever and forever.” St. Augustine. It is well worth to obey Him and to follow Him; He is the Lord of Love and Life eternal. Ecclesial renewal can only mean getting serious about the imitation of Christ.
The theologian Christopher Ruddy’s and writer Russell Shaw’s presentation of what can be called “precautions” or as Ruddy’s “prunings” about the Synod on Synodality is rather too guarded and indicative of a fundamental lack of trust in the Holy Spirit. Reflective of the many “prebuttals” floated by those who dislike Pope Francis and spurn this synod. Contrary to the general misunderstanding of many “prebuttals” the synod is to be viewed as Pope Francis always asserts as having the Holy Spirit as the main protagonist of this church event rather than the bishops and delegates often perceived and pictured as like parliamentarians out to deny or change at will church doctrine and tradition after discussions and votations. Pope Francis can truly actualize the vision of Vatican II by returning to the original intent and purpose of Synods. Right after Vatican II, Pope Paul VI established the instrumentality of Synods to implement the council’s vision of the collegiality of bishops with and under the Pope. By adding on and implementing the Vatican II vision of “lay co-responsibility” on top of “episcopal collegiality” in having voting lay men and women synod members, Pope Francis is faithfully furthering the full reception of Vatican II’s sacramental vision of the Church as the full People of God. Another prayer and hope that can be added here is Pope Francis’s restoration of letting the Synod, in relying on the Holy Spirit, have its own teaching authority and document rather than having the synod’s deliberations “pruned” and presented in a post-synodal apostolic exhortation made by the Pope. The 1971 Synod did this with its document, “Justice in the World.” Its message was mainly uncomfortable and disturbing to many Catholics especially in the First World (its not in the Vatican website or included in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church), the practice was discontinued and since then we only have the “pruned” post-synod papal document rather than a synodal document itself.
DD says:
“The theologian Christopher Ruddy’s and writer Russell Shaw’s presentation …[is] indicative of a fundamental lack of trust in the Holy Spirit.”
Scripture says:
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” ~1 John 4:1.
Even were Francis to work miracles, accurately cite the entirety of scripture from beginning to end, heal the sick, achieve peace and justice throughout the world, and correctly predict the date on which the world will end, we are wise (gift of the Holy Spirit Himself] to follow the advice of Christ’s beloved disciple.
We will test Francis on his discernment of the Holy Spirit.
Just the other day, Francis declared the H.S. to be “visible.” Common sense tells us that spirits are not, by nature, visible.
I think we have all come to realize that this synod is being moved by the progressive party of the Church. This same party got what it could (took what it could) out of the good intentions of Vatican II and saw the Ressourcement rediscovery as an opportunity to hold on and radically change the Church from the inside, at the grassroots. How can we now have hope in a synodal process which in Vatican II was a Synod of Bishops but is no longer even that? Isn’t this synod nothing but the dream-come-true for past members of groups like Voice of the Faithful which used the clergy abuse revelations as one more opportunity to attempt to create a lay congress that will have its place at the table (until it can have the table all to itself). When will we realize that progressivism in any form is patient and relentless? Give it an inch and it will take your yard. Progressivism is a completely merciless system. Whether it be in politics or religion, it will cancel you, cut you off, and not care what happens to you after that, because it was your fault for being in the opposition. Its perpetual proposal of dialogue, in truth, comes with a shelf life and it is already showing signs of expiring. Even if we get through this synod relatively unscathed we will have lost something vital because Catholic progressives, like all progressives, are as stubborn children who insist on getting their way, even if they have to put their own parents in prison to get it. They are steadily and slowly taking all the oxygen from the room. For now they are setting it up so we cannot speak; their goal is that eventually we cannot breathe.
We all realize it, certainly. The chaos and outcry that it evokes, from those that seek to quell any dissent against it is about all the proof we need of that.
The bottom line is the advocates want an easy church, one that bends the rules that might otherwise leave them out in the cold, so to speak.
As one author put it….
“America (and the world) has descended into a new period of “bread and circuses,” where offerings of benefits or entertainments are intended to soothe discontent, or distract attention from policies or hard situations in life.
In this way, we look to self or other people for succor, and we forget the deeper needs of our transcendent nature…. why, a great many of us are fighting every other battle, but the spiritual battle for our souls.
What do I mean?
Even though a good portion of the U.S. considers itself Christian, the sociologist Christian Smith, popularized a new term to encapsulate the modern religious sentiments of most Americans:
“Moralistic Therapeutic Deism”
This can be summarized as, “Be Nice, Feel Good, And God Is Absent” (although its okay to call on Him in prayer in case of emergency).
In this Religion of Self, God is hanging around, but He becomes subordinate to the individual’s wants and desires, reinforcing the modern notion that the self IS reality.
Essentially we’ve enshrined our collective “Self” in an exalted position. We seek to shape our identity through the fulfillment of our desires, particularly sexual ones, and insist that others affirm our choices to validate our sense of worth.
The leaders of the synodalistic church see the traditional hard-line as leading to a shrinking membership – and they want to keep their jobs in the world.
So they are essentially pandering to new members who will applaud their actions.
Behind this attempt to redefine the self and reality, we find the age-old temptation to become a god unto ourselves, defining for ourselves what is right and wrong, good and evil. Forget what we were taught from the first century onward… The new battle cry is: “We want what we want, and we want it now!”
In every other avenue of life, the Progressive voice pushes its insistence that all must cave to this basic demand. Changing definitions and using modern, circuitious verbiage to disguise this intent doesn’t change that.
Here is a summary of the recording at VATICAN NEWS, as related by Sr. Natalie Becquart, Cardinal Hollerich and (third individual, a woman, can’t make out the name properly -Spurder?).
>> A cookbook of recipes for different palates
Chief cooks have the ingredients
“Impossible task without the Spirit”
Holy Spirit “in the background” guiding to find “a new food harmony” / “new found harmony”
Bishops are called to protect the discernment that has been started in the worldwide synodal process
A hope for a deep renewal
Pilgrims on the road “led by the Spirit” with all the diversity
Especially to listen to the young people to reach them
“Vocation caravan stand” (booth?)
Instrumentum is only 52 pages not like some other synods
“Not a final version or a tentative answer to all questions of synodality”
“Epaphatic”? ( Epiphatic? Epiphanic? Apophatic? )
“Cataphatic”
Everything to be intimately connected
Grow in communion welcoming everybody
Everyone contributing to common mission
New art of walking is a conversation “in the Spirit” that leads to a method of discernment of participation – art of questioning one another
Mission of walking and harmony – mission is harmony like the “canton” structure and experience from Switzerland “decision making”
“Training and forming of all members of the Church for synodal expression of a model of pastoral care” like Swiss
New ways that have already been developed and other ways to be found
All delegations approved by the Pope bear the authority to speak and you have to listen carefully to your portion of the people with whom you belong
For the good of the whole family of humankind and our common home <<
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/podcast/vatican-viewpoint/2023/07/vatican-viewpoint-episode-64-synod-instrumentum-laboris-wyd.html