Francis' synod institutional changes

[MarieT]

Instituational changes looked at to promote synodality

[Denise]

She doesn't need their kind of renewal IMHO!

[Johnna]

Making Church renewal easier isn't a thing that's up to us. God frequently uses suffering to have us grow. Not all change is renewal, some growths might be cancerous. Humans frequently mess things up by trying to accomplish God's ends with their own ideas/methods. Look at the problems that were birthed when Sarah told Abraham to get a concubine pregnant because she was to old to bear a child! It never ends well when we don't do things His way.

[MarieT]

She doesn't need their kind of renewal IMHO!

Right!

[MarieT]

check out this article

The Synodal Comedy: Act II by Fr John A Perricone --
Courtesy of Crisis Magazine

Assaults on the city of Rome, the See of Peter, have not been infrequent over the course of the
millennia. Attila attempted. But he failed when he came into the formidable presence of Leo, called
“the Great,” resulting in a dramatic volte-face.

Napoleon conquered Rome in 1809.
The Italian Nationalists of the Risorgimento mounted attacks upon Rome in 1848, forcing Blessed Pius IX to
flee in a simple black Roman cassock to Gaeta in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

Hitler subdued Rome on June 4, 1944.

Yet none of these can compare to the assault being suffered by Rome today.

This time the foe is Synodal Listening—II, and it is nothing less than the squandering of Christ’s salvific inheritance.
To witness princes of the Church and assorted empurpled prelates parade about as though in some
Rogerian self-actualisation exercise makes a Catholic shudder.

If not for Christ’s words, “And the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it,” a Catholic would be tempted to think he was witnessing the end of Catholicism.

This ruling elite behaved as though they were fanatical participants in a Maoist Struggle
Session.

Those historic monstrous displays dragged Chinese citizens into the semblance of a court
and gratuitously accused them of being “class enemies.”

They were then humiliated, accused, beaten, tortured, and put to death.

In the Synodal Sessions, it is the Faith that is so treated.

Its majesty trampled upon, then traded for the cheap trinkets of the best psychobabble money can buy. All the more chilling is the gleeful willingness with which the successors of the apostles participated.

Imagine. On the very ground consecrated by the blood of Peter and Paul and countless other martyrs, their successors are
performing like a troupe of vaudevillians.

They exhibit the gravitas of scarecrows.
One hesitates to accuse these synodalists of heresy, for there is far too little there to deserve
the weight of such opprobrium.

Heresy requires probity and purpose. It is the stuff of serious men.
These synodalists are giddy pallbearers for the corpse of a spent Catholic Left.

Before the Synod began, a “retreat” was mandated.

You see, the insipid requires preparation.


To fool the Catholics masses, folly requires mimicking Old Catholicism, though it be only a hollow
shell. Hence the otherwise respectable guise of “retreat.” The Synodal Retreat was as close to an
authentic retreat as astronomy is to astrology.

Take a quick glance at a copy of the agenda and prepare to cringe.

It begins:
The penitential liturgy is intended to direct the work of the Synod towards the beginning of a new way
of being Church. In St. Peter’s Basilica, the penitential celebration, presided over by Pope Francis,
will include time to listen to three testimonies of persons who have suffered sin: the sin of abuse: the
sin of war: the sin of indifference to the dramas present in the growing phenomena of migrations all
over the world. They will confess the:
• Sins against peace.
• Sins against creation, against indigenous populations, against migrants.
• Sins of abuse.
• Sins against women, family, youth.
• Sins of using doctrine as stones to be hurled.
• Sins against poverty.
• Sins against synodality / lack of listening, communion and participation of all.

This is the din of Babel. Where does one begin? The task is akin to nailing down raindrops.
The most obvious question: What is the “sin of using doctrine as stones to be hurled”? Could this
refer to the defence of the Revelation of Christ? If so, one wonders what then is there to believe? If
doctrine is something hurtful, then the purpose of Christ’s Church evaporates. Doctrine is the
unchanging teaching of the Faith. If that cannot be used as our buckler and shield, then what is?
That very query calls into question the purpose of martyrdom. Did St. John Fisher go to his
death because he “hurled doctrine against his enemies”? Was his beheading then futile? Indeed, a
sin? Was the Council of Trent a nefarious episode because it defined doctrines as ways to quell the
fires of Protestant heresy?
Reason here stands stupefied. Theological analysis screeches to a halt. Against such stream
of consciousness platitudes there is no egress. In his Metaphysics, Aristotle remarks that trying to
argue with a man who has taken leave of reason is like speaking to a vegetable. Is this our
predicament?
Any Catholic not embarrassed by this fog must look to see if their baptismal character has
faded. Pachamama ceremonies along with the new Mayan and Amazonian rites of the Mass were
only faint preludes to the soaring inanities of the Synod Retreat. These synodalists fashion themselves
a pack of new Moses promulgating a terribly au courant list of sins. It used to be that Modernist
theologians of the past years were busy burying any mention of sin. This new crop is now busy
reviving it. But sins of a different colour. A colour bearing no resemblance to Christianity.
What dangerous ground these synodalists have chosen to tread.
But all this must not be met with either rancour or desperation. No room for those exertions
in authentic Catholic hearts.
Be assured, the crisis will deepen, and the time for redress will drag on even longer.
But alert and intelligent Catholics have no recourse now except prayer. Each must examine
their actions against the deeply affecting words of Our Saviour in the Book of the Apocalypse: “But
because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth”
(Revelation 3:16).
These must be looked upon as times for Catholics to do great things.
Edited for publication. The full article may be accessed at crisismagazine.com

[Denise]

[MarieT]

something bishops and the hierarchy will be most interested in
and monitoring very closely

synod explores relationship betwen local and universal church

[Denise]

Some New Notes on an Expiring Synod

Veteran Vatican journalist Joan Lewis and TCT Editor-in-Chief Robert Royal discuss some of the novelties and oddities about the Synod on Synodality in its final days – including the news that before the current session began some of the bishops got together and asked for a clear definition of synodality, which still remains unclear.

https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2024/1 ... 0e2ee99a66

[MarieT]

yes that title "synod of synodality" is weird

francis still hasn't given clear indications about his choice of this title and calling a synod on synodality

there is a growing concern that without a clear definition, it might lead to misunderstandings about the purpose and goals of the initiative

Additionally, there are concerns about how this emphasis of this rather unusual title, might mislead and impact traditional structures of authority and decision-making within the Church (needless to say we've already seen some questionable appointments to roles.....where those appointed by francis, should never have been considered in the first place)!