Synods all the way down

Purple Catholic Saturday Post

Oct 05, 2024

Good morning and happy Saturday. I appreciate you all sticking with me as I was out last week.

The final session of the Synod on Synodality is this week in Rome. Everyone I have talked to who pays a lick of attention to Catholic news has an opinion about it and almost none of them are compatible with each other. So here is my two cents.

The Synod as a whole has not been well explained or pitched to the average Catholic faithful and has left many with the question “what are we doing here?”

First, I have not been able to find a suitable definition for “synodality.” We have the Synod of Bishops, which essential refers to the meeting of the entire bishops in Rome. You had the Synod on the Amazon, which allowed some people with some money to have a podium to share ideas that have largely remain unused.

Ok… so what is it in this context? Well when trying to define it in 2018, the International Theological Commission also struggled, saying it is “involvement and participation of the whole People of God in the life and mission of the Church.” Well I’m not sure what that means either. We all participate in various ways with various vocations. St. Paul said to the Ephesians that the Holy Spirit gives gifts to all and that “some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (4:11). What that means is that all have been given gifts, not that all have a say in the life of the Church.

Maybe synonyms will be helpful. Based on the ITC’s definition, the Synod’s own documents, and from comments by Pope Francis, the closest synonyms I can come up with are dialouge, listening, or discerning.

Secondly, the emphasis on synodality, which its own synthesis document has said “represents the future of the Church,” frustrates many, including myself, because it has the odor of dismissing the development of doctrine for the past 2000 years.

St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Therese of Liseux, and the other fathers and doctors of the Church did not rely on synodality to come to conclusions about faith, morals, and other spiritual matters.

The International Theological Commission argued that though synodality had “not explicitly [been] found as a term or as a concept in the teaching of Vatican II” it must have been at its heart. Well, when your definition is as vauge as the one they provided, pretty much any activity could be considerd synodal. You reading this article are practicing in synodality because you are actively listening to my opinion.

If you haven’t been able to tell yet, I’m skeptical of the process. However, I am not ready to start proclaiming that the sky is falling, now or ever.

Both extremes within the Church, progressives and neo-traditionalists, believe that synodality is going to allow the Church to change its teaching on one issue or another with a few simple documents and non-binding votes. Already this week, the group tasked with reflecting on controversial issues, such as so-called same-sex marriage, has said personal experience ought to be emphasized when discerning doctrine (link below). Short of “personal experience trumps doctrine,” I’m not sure what that is supposed to mean.

Both of those extremes are wrong.

It is true that the Church, as a whole, needs to find new and creative ways to preach the Gospel in the twenty-first century and lived experience is an undoubtedly important consideration when someone is evangelizing. But should it guide the development of doctrine?

I remain calm because I trust in the words of Jesus. As I have said when I criticized neo-tradiationalists before, if you believe Satan has a stronghold in his Church you’re not a faithful follower of Christ. “And I tell you, you are Peter,and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). The Church will still be here tomorrow regardless of what anyone says in or about the Synod.

Now, I need to go find a definition of “synodality” that isn’t self referential

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Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

This week we are entering the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time. This Sunday we will hear readings from Genesis 2:18-24, Psalm 128, Hebrews 2:9-11, and Mark 10:2-16.

Here are some resources to help you prep for the readings this Sunday:

In the Liturgy of the Hours, we are in Psalter Week III. In the Office of Readings we are reading St. Paul’s first letter to Timothy.

Here is a calendar for the rest of the week:

Monday, 7 October - Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary
Wednesday, 9 October - Memorial of Denis, bishop and martyr, and his companions, martyrs (optional) or Memorial of St. John Leonardi, priest (optional)
Friday, 11 October - Memorial of St. John XXIII, pope (optional)

[If] we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

1 John 4:12

In the news:

Have a good weekend,

Matthew

Synods all the way down

Purple Catholic Saturday Post

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AS HEARD ON AVE MARIA RADIO AND EPIC RADIO 103.5FM!

Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

In the news:

Hurricane Helene

The United States

The Vatican

The World

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