When the "Synod on Synodality" was announced a couple of years ago, I calmly resolved to ignore the silliness. That was not possible: all you read about in the Catholic press, even from otherwise sober, prudent bishops and leaders, is this annoying, nonsensical neologism, surely the "worst word of 2023." In this it resembles Donald Trump. Almost 8 years ago I agreed with an opinion piece by David Brooks suggesting we ignore the stupidity coming from the mouth of that man; I completely agreed; but it was impossible, he is everywhere, especially in the liberal media which is obsessed with him. Like The Donald, synodality is the elephant in the room, sucking all the oxygen and leaving a toxic odor!
On the positive side: we cannot too strenuously affirm the value of listening. I have been quietly working on my listening: at Church to the prayers of the priest which I tend to ignore as my mind ruminates; to those I love and want to share with me; to those I hate for their views; to people who suffer homelessness, addictions, pathologies; to wise voices; to those in error. So, if this papal campaign were entitled "Campaign for Dialogic and Listening Encounters" I might sign on. Unfortunately, it is more than that.
1. First of all: a Synod for the Catholic is an authoritative gathering of bishops, in union with the Pope, to address an issue of morals, faith or governance. It is an exercise of the apostolic authority they received from the apostles, including Peter. This Synod is no such thing. It is a listening exercise between bishops and laity. That could arguably be a positive more: IT IS NOT A SYNOD. Redefining the word implicitly shifts away from apostolic, hierarchical authority to a democratic model for the Church. It is subtle, but decisive. This is seen clearly by Burke, Strickland, Mueller, Zen and a small remnant.
2. Secondly, this eagerness for a new "Synodal Church" springs from the hatred of Pope Francis for an imagined non-synodal or pre-synodal Church that is legalistic, dogmatic, clerical, privileged, condemnatory, distant from the suffering. This pontiff is not a reflective, intellectual in the mode of our popes of recent memory, he is an emotional, impulsive type. This does not make him a bad person; it makes him a trainwreck of a pope. He despises conservative priests, rightwing Americans and politicians, Latin mass communities, pro-life activists, metaphysics and dogmatic theology, spiritual boquets with rosaries numbered in the tens of thousands, and any expressions of clerical privilege. There is, of course, some basis for his antipathies: we are a sinful Church and there are problems with the above. But his vivid, emotional, obsessed imagination has contorted them into cartoon figures, larger than real life, like Joker, Penquin and other characters out of Gotham City. So we see that "synodality" is code for a contempt for the Church as she really is today, in her flaws.
3. The binary, synodal-vs.-non-synodal, is a stereotypical progressive mime: "in with the new, out with the old." It is a rephrasing of the notorious "Spirit of Vatican II." It positions itself as the enlightened Present in a posture of superiority, condemnation and disdain for a past that is ignorant, oppressive, and violent against its victims. By contrast, authentic Catholic reform is always a return to the sources, primarily our salvation in Christ and the Scriptures, as well as the fathers, doctors, mystics, martyrs and the philosophical tradition of Aristotle, Plato, Augustine, Aquinas, Newman and others. The ACTUAL Vatican II, as interpreted authoritatively by two participants (both young, brilliant, saintly, one a German peritus and the other a Polish bishop), was just such a return to the sources.
4. As articulated by Pope Francis and his lieutenants, synodality is void of content. They insist, with apparent sincerity, that there is no hidden agenda other than an eagerness to listen attentively to all, especially those who are far from the institution of the Church. To the extent that this is accurate, the process is vacuous, empty of intrinsic form or meaning. There is no meat! Nothing into which we might sink our spirits, hearts, intellects. It is reminiscent of the psychologiocal and human potential movements of the 1960s, popular in California, involving Rogerian listening, encounter and sensitivity groups, and relentless narcissistic obsessing. By contrast, real renewal movements, often started by charismatic figures, offer a rigorous itinerary of teaching and practice that draws from Tradition in a novel, contemporary style: Charismatic, Neocathechumenate, Communion and Liberation, Focolare, etc.
5. Notwithstanding the insistence of the Father of Synodality and his collaborators, which includes the mainstream bishops participating, this process is perfectly engineered for exploitation by those who hate the (actual, real, concrete, present) Church and want a new Protestant Revolution. It privileges those distant from and in dissent from the Church. It subtly, implicitly, covertly evokes the classic Hegelian-Marxist dynamic of thesis/antithesis, of oppressor/oppressed, of powerful/powerless. It is a Trojan Horse, apparently open and harmless, but in reality a lethal tool in the hands of those who despise the masculine priesthood, the sexual ethos of chastity and fidelity, the authority of the bishops, and the sacredness of Tradition.
I cannot collaborate in Synodality. I love the Church as she is. Yes, in her humanity she is sinful. This includes pope, bishops, priests. But so am I. It is not for me to judge her; not for me to reform her; not for me to assume a superiority in moral judgement. It is for me to work my own inventory of sin. It is for me to repent and become holy, by participation in the efficacious sacramental economy, by acceptance of the infallibility of Scripture-Tradition-Magisterium, by forgiving a sinful Church and asking for forgiveness for myself, by renouncing Satan and his kingdom, and by ever-deepening engagement with and emulation of the Mystical Body of Christ, Mary and the saints, in heaven and here on earth, along with my fellow sinners.
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