Aboard the papal plane, Sep 4, 2023 / 09:07 am (CNA).
In his in-flight press conference returning from Mongolia on Monday, Pope Francis outlined his vision for the upcoming synodal assembly in October, which he said should be a prayerful exercise in dialogue free from ideology, not full of “political chatter” like a television talk show.
Pope Francis was peppered with multiple questions about the Synod on Synodality from journalists traveling with him on the 10-hour flight from Ulaanbaatar to Rome on Sept. 4.
“In the synod, there is no place for ideology,” Pope Francis told journalists on the chartered ITA Airways plane.
“There is no place for ideology, but there is room for dialogue, for an exchange between brothers and sisters,” he added.
Pope Francis emphasized the unique spiritual dimension of the first global Synod on Synodality assembly taking place at the Vatican Oct. 4–28. He said that he wants it to be “a religious moment.”
He highlighted how the synodal assembly should have three to four minutes of silent prayer between discussions, noting that this prayerful atmosphere should be what distinguishes a synodal assembly from “parliamentarianism.”
“Without this spirit of prayer, there is no synodality,” the pope said.
“There is one thing that we have to keep — ‘the synodal atmosphere,’” Francis added.
The synod should not be like a television talk show where everything is discussed, the pope explained, but a “dialogue between the baptized.”
“The synod is the dialogue between the baptized, who in the name of the Church, [discuss] the life of the Church, [and] dialogue with the world on the problems that affect humanity today,” he said.
Pope Francis pointed to the tradition of synods in Eastern Churches as an example.
“The Eastern Church knows how to live out synodality. It is living it as Christians … without falling into ideologies,” he said.
Pope Francis was asked about a recently published book with a preface by U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke that compared the Synod on Synodality to opening “Pandora’s box.”
In response, Francis recalled how some religious sisters had also expressed to him their fears about the synod, telling him that they feared changes to Church doctrine.
Pope Francis said that at the root of these types of ideas about synodality, one always finds “ideologies,” adding that it is ideologies that are responsible for dividing the faithful.
He explained that “a ‘doctrine’ in quotation marks” is a doctrine that is like “distilled water,” without any taste and is not true Catholic doctrine.
“Many times true Catholic doctrine scandalizes — how scandalous is the idea that God became flesh, that God became man, that Our Lady preserved her virginity. This scandalizes,” the pope said.
“Catholic doctrine sometimes scandalizes. Ideologies are all ‘distilled’ and never scandalize.”
How the October synodal assembly will work
When asked why synod discussions will be taking place behind closed doors without access for journalists and how the synod can maintain transparency with this format, Pope Francis responded that the synod will be “very open.”
Pope Francis explained that there is a Commission for Information under the leadership of layman Paolo Ruffini, the prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Communications, that “will make press releases on how the proceedings of the synod are going” and “provide information on the progress of the synod.”
“In the synod, the religiosity and the loyalty of the people who speak must be guarded, and this is why there is the commission led by Ruffini,” he said.
“The commission does not have an easy task,” he added, noting that the synod’s commission will need to be respectful of each delegate’s interventions and provide updates on the synod proceedings that are “constructive for the Church,” and “not gossip.”
The pope told journalists that the news about the synod should not read like “political chatter,” adding that the information commission is tasked with transmitting “the Christian spirit, not the political spirit.”
“Do not forget that the protagonist of the synod is the Holy Spirit,” Pope Francis underlined.
The Commission for Information is not a novelty to the Synod on Synodality, but has been a regular feature of Synod of Bishops assemblies in past years.
What is unique about the upcoming synod is that for the first time, the assembly will include voting delegates who are not bishops, including laypeople, priests, consecrated women, and deacons selected by the leadership of this year’s continental synod meetings or, in some cases, directly by the pope.
The Synod on Synodality, initiated by Pope Francis in October 2021, has been a multiyear, worldwide undertaking during which Catholics were asked to submit feedback to their local dioceses on the question, “What steps does the Spirit invite us to take in order to grow in our ‘journeying together?’”
The Catholic Church’s massive synodal process has already undergone diocesan, national, and continental stages. It will culminate in two global assemblies at the Vatican.
The Instrumentum Laboris, or working document, guiding the assembly discussions suggests discernment of questions regarding some hot-button topics, including women deacons, priestly celibacy, and LGBTQ outreach.
The first October assembly will be held in the Paul VI Hall, instead of the Vatican’s New Synod Hall, with delegates sitting at round tables of about 10 people each to discuss how to advise the pope on the topic: “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, Mission.” The second assembly is set for October 2024.
Pope Francis has a busy month ahead leading up to the first October synod assembly. The 86-year-old has another international trip planned not long after returning from his four-day trip in Mongolia.
The pope will travel to Marseilles, France, publish an update to Laudato Si’, preside over an ecumenical prayer vigil, and create 21 new cardinals at a consistory at the end of the month.
During the 40-minute in-flight press conference, Pope Francis spoke about Vatican-China relations, the possibility of a papal trip to Vietnam, and further clarified his recent comments on Russian imperialism.
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Now this crank is beginning to define “Catholic teaching” as ” an ideology”
What a mess this guy is.
Amoralist Laetitia proved the last Synod was fraudulent for the toleration of concubinage.
The upcoming Synods are being set up to promote fraudulent ideologies, like blessing same-sex unions. Want proof besides the IL, filled with heretical ideologies?
Consider the treatment of Cardinal Burke:
– Told the Truth of Christ to Pope Francis, got fired.
– Forced out of every role, invited to nothing, ignored after asking legitimate questions.
– Mocked with Covid while intubated.
– Endorses a document calling out potential anti-Catholic Synod ideologies versus the Deposit of Faith, called a promoter of ideologies.
– Not consulted or invited to the Synods as a Cardinal!
– Known abusers, promoters of heterodoxy, globalist rich people, “trans,” blasphemous artists and secular leaders who promote abortion get an audience, not Burke.
Witness the Synodaling of this pontificate. Matthew 7: 15-20
True.
With this clear declaration by Pope Francis about the non-ideological nature of the Synod on Synodality, the expected and understandable cynicism of the ideologically driven (like the anti-Francis Catholics) will loudly insist otherwise. An ideologue sees all in terms of ideology. This is a showcase of either their failure or resistance to understand what the Pope means by synodality. The synod on synodality is not a meeting about meetings as many extremist anti-Francis Catholics caricature and misrepresent. Synodality is a way of understanding the nature and mission of the Church. It is an ecclesiological profile of how the church lives out its vocation of being sent by Christ into the world. The synod is meant to be an actual living out of this ecclesiality and a forum for Catholics to listen to the Holy Spirit and to one another so as to deepen their faithfulness to this Christ-given mission to the world. Synodality is rooted in Vatican II’s Lumen Gentium’s idea of the Church as a pilgrim people of God on a “shared journey” (from the Greek root words of “synod”) of, a people teaching and learning from one another, a priestly people whose shared identity stems from their common baptism. The Church only becomes faithful to its calling when it is willing to both teach and be taught as they “walk together” in the way of Jesus.
Why would anyone provide credence to an institution which has misunderstood its very constitution for 2000 years? Now we are asked to believe this cadre of egoists are being guided by the Holy Spirit? If they are correct now where has the Spirit been for 2000 years? Can Jesus Christ, God, contradict Himself? Private revelations are held up to scrutiny against the perennial Magisterium of the Church. How does Bergoglianism measure up to the perennial Magisterium? To the Apostolic Tradition, let alone Sacred Scripture? If synodalism is indeed what it says it is, dialogue, why are Roman Catholics who are termed “ridged” excluded from the exchange?
The synodalism characterized as a recapturing of the Apostolic era and mirroring Eastern Orthodoxy is a mendacious enterprise designed to further the evisceration of Christianity itself. It is meant to be a gradual slide into Arianism at best, eventually into a domesticated deism in service to the New World Order. It is a deception. A sacrilege. Hirelings run rabid over the flock.
Finally, after 2,000 years, Synodaling will save us by by walking together…somewhere!
Papal progress has redeemed me from my ideological stuckedness.
This is better than Burning Man or even talk therapy! I Am OK!
“Synodaling will save us by by walking together…”
Off a cliff?
We are already in mid-air.
Amen.
The 70’s called: retread of the same old tired junk of meaningless chatter….poor thing….back to the future…
Since it is clear that neither the hard-core ideologue Francis nor his hard-core ideological admirers understand the meaning of the word ideology, I will explain. It has all to do with whether you take truth seriously or foolishly. When you take it foolishly, you are an ideologue.
Ideologues believe truth is a human creation and subject to unlimited change. They pick and choose what belief system serves their personal interests, especially in such things as morality. Ideologues have little or no religious faith, even when they happen to be high prelates who project these states of mind and soul onto the non-ideologues they love to hate and accuse of being ideologues.
Those who take truth seriously know that truth never changes for the simple reason that their faith informs them that truth is entirely the reflection of the mind of God. It can never change over time because God doesn’t change. We cannot even possess truth. Truth possesses us. God allows us creativity in articulating our witness to truth, but we create no truth at all. When humanity makes discoveries, it can only discover what God already knows and has always known for eternity. I have worked in physics for decades and have experienced joy and reverence in witnessing the fingerprint of God.
Development of doctrine has always meant expanding common sense implications, not contradicting them, as Our Lord made clear. Merely looking with lust is evil, not only the complete act of adultery. Jesus might not have ever had the need to mention the word abortion. We don’t know. But the early Christians recognized the obvious evil of it and formally stated it.
Ideologues like Francis and his acolytes have a foolhardy approach to truth that believes what can’t change can change because they want it to be that way. Francis has denied immutable truth and insisted that even God is in the process of learning and can change His mind. This is an insult to God, but they don’t care because the majority of God’s sinful children are ideologues with a vested interest in few if any eternal truths, who support moral relativism and are faithlessly tolerant of the process of sham synods that are seeking to validate even greater insults to God.
If what you say is accurate, then why the persecution of the Latin Rite adherants?
This Pope is the master of double speak.
How do we know if we’re “walking together” in the way of Christ if some among us suggest walking somewhere that’s in contradiction to what Christ said in Holy Scripture? Is “Holy” Scripture still Divinely inspired, or has it finally devolved into “A reading film the book of Opinions on Christ written by some guy named Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John – Men who lived in a specific era and may therefore possibly be ignored”; as if the Scripture weren’t representing an eternal truth valid for all time and inspired by the Holy Spirit?
Or does the Holy Spirit tell us today different things than He told others 20 years ago? How would we know that what we’re hearing is from the Holy Spirit? Once upon a time I remember something about another Spirit; not that modernist Catholics talk about him anymore, but he was called an enemy, an accuser, a deceiver, and the father of lies? St Paul mentioned something about the nemesis and how we would know him, but do we still trust St. Paul after he said all those terrible things excluding those people “on the margins”; the fornicators, the drunks, the idolaters, the adulterers? Who are we going to trust, St Paul who helped murder St James and persecuted the early Christians, or kindly Papa Francis who said “Who am I to judge?”
Frankly, I’m with St Paul and every Christian afterward who understood his words as the Truth.
O, so in essence, the synod is about all the other stuff the apostles experienced while in Christ’s presence but didn’t actually believe important enough to convey for the mission the Church which was appointed by Divine assignment: the salvation of souls. We should just kind of hang out together, let the Holy Spirit speak to us, then meditate for a couple of minutes on what the Holy Spirit said? Sounds groovy. Peace and love, Brother! [The NO church is dying as the Woodstock generation that brought it into being is passing from their darkness into the light on the other side of this Lacrimarum Vale. Just today, The Pillar highlights an article about the closing of Catholic NO parishes in Seattle. To be honest, it can’t come quickly enough. LONG LIVE THE LATIN MASS!]
Since it is clear that neither a left-wing ideologue like Francis nor his ideological admirers understand the meaning of the word ideology, I will illuminate. It has to do with whether you take truth seriously or foolishly.
When you take it foolishly, you are an ideologue. You believe truth is a human creation and subject to unlimited change. You pick and choose what belief system serves your personal desires, especially in such things as morality. Ideologues have little or no religious faith, even when they happen to believe they have lots of it, or have the audacity to call it “walking with Jesus.”
Those who take truth seriously know that truth never changes for the simple reason that their faith informs them that truth is entirely the reflection of the mind of God. It can never change over time because God doesn’t change. We cannot even possess truth. Truth possesses us. God allows us creativity in witnessing truth, but we create no truth at all. When humanity makes discoveries, it can only discover what God already knows and has always known for eternity.
Development of doctrine has always meant expanding common sense implications, not contradicting them, as Our Lord made clear. Merely looking with lust is evil, not only formal adultery. Jesus might not have ever had the need to mention the idea of abortion. We don’t know. But the early Christians recognized the obvious evil of it and formally stated it.
Ideologues like Francis and his supporters have a foolhardy approach to truth that believes what can’t change can change because they want it to change. Francis has denied immutable truth and insisted that even God is in the process of learning and can change His mind. This is an insult to God, but they don’t care because the majority of God’s sinful children become ideologues with a vested interest in denying eternal truths, who support moral relativism, and who are quite tolerant of the process of sham synods that are seeking to validate even greater insults to God.
Foolishness abides when man tries to understand God without the Guidance of the Holy Spirit.
The ideologue of choice is surely Francis himself. That he is unable to recognize that his ideologies and his fraudulent attempt to replace the perennial Magisterium with his and his confreres personal notions would be laughable were it not so tragic, and, indeed, insulting to the faithful who they regard as catechized ignorant groundlings.
Some of us did survive the sixties, bruised but not brought down.
Shouldering the Bergoglian epoch becomes more difficult with each passing day. This morning this accurate estimation of it all was found at Rorate Caeli: “Each additional day with Francis is a day of wonder — wonder at how such magnificent mélange of utter buffoonery, tackiness, ignorance, and malice could reach the see of Peter in this “enlightened” age. Maybe it is all a great plot by liberals to destroy papolatry once and for all.”
There is more to it, it must be read.
The plain truth without mitigation.
Just who do the laity invited to vote in this synod represent? They don’t speak for me. Do they get a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit to discern God’s will that we regular lay plebs don’t get because we haven’t been invited to the Synod? Why do we regular laity have to listen to them? Moreover, if Church teaching is up for debate and change, can we debate the authority of Synods and the authority of the episcopacy to promulgate this stuff? I mean if some of it is up for debate then ALL of it is.
One would hope there is room at the table for the idea of God Our Father, Jesus Christ our Lord and the Holy Spirit Who has revealed to the world the Way, the Truth and the Life by way of the discipline of Love, which will prevail in this very fallen world which deceives us all. It’s a cooperative effort between God & Mankind, under the display of love, forgiveness and being rightly disposed in one’s heart. Selfish injustice has its worldly limits. Praise God. Be open to Him. Remember the Greatest Commandment which Our Lord has explained to us.
“In the synod, there is no place for ideology,” Pope Francis told journalists on the chartered ITA Airways plane.
This from a prelate who wrote an encyclical on environmentalism that criticized people for using air conditioners.
Exactly, like a Pretender.
Touché
So why is Pope Francis so worried about what he claims is the “Holy Spirit” talking at the Catholic Counsel? If it truly is the “Holy Spirit” discussing things, through Catholic leaders, at Pope Francis’ Council, why obstruct us and free-speech to listen in on what the “Holy Spirit” has to say?
John 3:19
And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.
Guided by the Holy Spirit and nourished by the humble prayers of the faithful, the Synod on Synodality promises to bear rich fruit in plenty.
The fruits promise to be: Deceit, perishing, refusal, pleasure, delusion, belief, and ultimately condemnation
Teaching moments!
The regime of Pontiff Francis is obsessed with making accommodations for the sexual revolution and political power arrangements.
The main themes of its “different gospel” are:
1. Solidarity with the sex revolution ideology…
2. Solidarity with the Communist Ideology, and the communist state of China, declared by papal spokesman Sorondo of Argentina as the country that “best realizes the social doctrine of the Church.”
3. Establishing a post-christian ideological cult as permanent parasite living inside the Body of Christ.
“ICONIC & INSPIRATIONAL”
A Convention Center serves many purposes, such as, Trade Shows, Industry Fairs, Convention/Conference Venue, Live Entertainment, Reunions, even Film Set Staging.
One Particular Purpose a Convention Center can be for is initiating how its facilities will be used and what events will ensue. That is, Inception Gathering.
“Let your imagination grow – forward for any challenge – tomorrow’s dreams, today’s reality – spirit of innovation by visionaries in difficult times” – Javits’ promo.
Yes you could decree that your Center will never be used “as a Parliament” and that it will provide only for the “highest sense of freedom clean of all ideology”.
From WIKIPEDIA –
‘ In 1995, the Independent Review Board charged that jobs at the center had come under Mafia control. A New York Times article stated:
From the day the center opened in 1986 … Robert Rabbitt Sr. and his son Michael gave the work mainly to people with mob connections, to relatives and friends of organized-crime figures and to relatives and friends of union officers, the panel said. ‘
Today’s Space for Tomorrow’s Ideas
Javits Center | January 12 2022
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auYZVPTBxLo&t=66s
https://javitscenter.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javits_Center
The Church has a history of “black balling” certain people even before the “discernment process “starts”. What does one expect from such nonsense?
The Synodal Process Is a Pandora’s Box: 100 Questions & Answers
Every time I read something this MAN has to say about anything vis-a-vis Rome and the world, including this synod, the muscles in my legs tighten to the point of WIRE. There will not be IDEOLOGY in the synod? I guess THAT isn’t an ideological stance, eh? I hope McElroy gets the message. The last word from him was like a trumpet blast in your ear in the middle of the night “the synod gives us progressives the chance to finish the job we started at V2.” Gulp. I’ve got to go stretch my legs, they’re cramping.