Vatican City, Oct 26, 2023 / 13:35 pm (CNA).
A Polish archbishop said Thursday one difficulty of synodality lies in distinguishing pastoral practice — which can be adapted to different cultural circumstances — from Church doctrine.
“In doctrine, the Church cannot bring to it the different viewpoints of those coming from the other continents or other parts of the world. Doctrine has to be ‘catholic’ [universal] and the same for everyone,” Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki of Poznan said at a press briefing for the Synod on Synodality on Oct. 26.
This is in contrast, the president of the Polish bishops’ conference said, to “different pastoral expressions” of doctrine as appear in different cultures, languages, and historical situations.
Gadecki is one of three Polish bishops participating in the Vatican’s Oct. 4–29 assembly of the Synod of Bishops on synodality.
He said the method of this synod brings both differences and agreements, and participants are not hiding the challenges.
“It would be useless to get together for a month and hide difficulties that exist in different situations or in connection with different issues that require an answer,” he said.
On pastoral practice versus doctrine, Gadecki underlined that “countries have their own histories and they must also be in tune with that history” — including negative responses to the Church’s actions.
He said different pastoral expressions do not influence Christian doctrine, the magisterium, holy Scripture, and sacred tradition.
“As far as the essential things are concerned, there cannot be a development of Christian doctrine, but in the things that are not essential, there can always be a change as long as that change is a true development,” he said, referencing the theological concept of the development of doctrine.
A Romanian Orthodox bishop, who is taking part in the synod as a fraternal delegate, a participant without a vote, said one challenge in the Orthodox understanding of synodality is in reaching a consensus among bishops.
“In the Orthodox church, it’s not the majority that ‘decides’ as we often see in synodal processes,” Metropolitan Iosef of Western and Southern Europe said.
The good thing about synodality, he added, “is you’re never alone when you make decisions.”
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Meaning what, exactly? At least regarding moral doctrine and pastoral expressions, the Polish Pope John Paul II give us this (as part of the Magisterium):
“A separation, or even an opposition, is thus established in some cases between the teaching of the precept, which is valid and general, and the norm of the individual conscience, which would in fact make the final decision [not moral judgment] about what is good and what is evil. On this basis, an attempt is made to legitimize so-called ‘pastoral’ solutions contrary to the teaching of the Magisterium, and to justify a ‘creative’ hermeneutic according to which the moral conscience is in no way obliged, in every case, by a particular negative precept [thou shalt not]” (Veritatis Splendor, n. 56).
“In doctrine, the Church cannot bring to it the different viewpoints of those coming from the other continents or other parts of the world. Doctrine has to be ‘catholic’ [universal] and the same for everyone,” Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki of Poznan said at a press briefing for the Synod on Synodality on Oct. 26.”
Sorry Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, Pope Francis invited the, not anathematized, German Bishops to his Synadal Party, and they were in no way apologizing for all their heretical departures from Universal Church Doctrine. So, as long as Pope Francis allows all Catholics to do what ever they want, and he excommunicates no one for departing from Church Doctrine, he has basically decentralized the Catholic Church, which is one of his desires.
German bishop at Synod on Synodality: Church should not ignore ‘signs of the times’
“Many people have asked me, ‘Are you still Catholics and part of the Catholic Church?” said Overbeck, one of the German Bishops’ Conference’s three delegates to the universal synod and a major proponent of the German Synodal Way. “And I say, ‘Yes, of course, we are Catholics, and we are here to stay.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255772/german-bishop-at-synod-on-synodality-church-should-not-ignore-signs-of-the-times?
Practice can vary, not doctrine. That’s the major premise of this pontificate. Inculturation is understood by Pope Francis to incorporate the Gospels, that they require reformulation to adjust to the culture in which they’re received. This distinguishes the mind of Synodality. The sense of freedom to change from permanence. In effect from the Eternal Word. A cult of self realization.