(LifeSiteNews) — For the sake of Christ’s love, please stop the overkill of synodal documents, intermediate steps, guidelines for the onward process, announcements of results, final documents that are not final, extensions into further rounds, proliferation of commissions, and ultimately an assembly in canonical no man’s land.
The vast majority of the people of God ignore your documents. In my experience, hardly any believers know about them or read them. Stop spinning around in circles in a process that has not awakened love for Jesus Christ in a single soul, but has so far mainly occupied (German-speaking) “reform Catholics” (in full-time ministry). Stop multiplying and proliferating working groups and commissions! The people of God are not interested in this.
The results are nothing but fog, blessings that would be better left undone, leadership models that contradict current canon law, new committees and councils, as if we haven’t had enough of them for 60 years. You live in a bubble and employ the wrong people. Most of the time, the bishops are already sitting at tables, but they are not the only ones. The invocation of the Holy Spirit comes too quickly from your lips.
Proclaim the Gospel for the sake of Christ’s love! Proclaim Christ to a Europe that has turned away from Him! Proclaim Christ to a world that is apocalyptic and constantly waging new wars! Talk about Jesus Christ instead of synodality! As you understand the latter, others have already spelled it out (e.g., the Anglicans) with the result of new schisms.
Stop keeping the Church in a never-ending synodal frenzy, supposedly to exchange gifts. The real problems in the Church are not being discussed: the mass apostasy of the baptized and confirmed from essential tenets of the faith (the divinity of Jesus; His bodily resurrection); liturgical formlessness ([per author Martin] Mosebach) and abuses in the Novus Ordo; no priestly vocations in many parts of the Church; widespread heterodox preaching (catechesis; university theology) and pastoral practices that contradict Catholic doctrine and canon law, allegedly because reality is greater than the idea. The list is incomplete.
I can no longer listen to your propaganda. I suspect that I am not the only one. For a long time, the Church has not been led in such an authoritarian and manipulative manner as in the era of the new synodality under Pope Francis, a never-ending attempt to achieve desired results. But Godot has not come. At least not yet, and by its very nature, it is futile to wait for him! What has come is the volatility of doctrine, the shifting sand, not the rock. According to Scripture, before the end, there will be a great apostasy, prophets will arise who flatter the ears, people will seek teachings to suit their own tastes, a truth that costs nothing, homosexuality (diversity), the Antichrist, and martyrdom. Anyone can read about it.
The only thing that is right about your synodality is the traditional teaching of discerning the Spirit, the desirable listening to God. But what is really new about this teaching? The “Hear, O Israel” (Shema Yisrael) as well as the Rule of St. Benedict (Prologue) begin with the word “Hear!” and are venerable. We have not only been dealing with the traditional teaching on discernment of spirits since the “Synod on Synodality.” What is new is the illusion that this work of discernment can be carried out with 1.4 billion Catholics – many of whom hold absolutely heterodox views – without the process of discernment and listening being politicized, instrumentalized, manipulated, or steered in a specific direction and possibly derailed, as in Germany. However, Fiducia supplicans and Traditionis custodes are also highly controversial documents in the process and came about against all the rules of the propagated art.
Where are the supporters of tradition, primarily young people and families, in this process? Where is their vote in this much-vaunted, sui generis synodal process? So far, they have been left out. In some countries (France, England), many young adults want to be baptized. Young people interested in the faith study the catechism, desire a reverently celebrated liturgy, and demand more mystery in the celebration of Holy Mass, where there is too much talking. In Albania, Christians now outnumber Muslims, as I have read. But in other European countries, Christians will be a demographic minority compared to Muslims in 25 years (pure statistics). Who cares about the challenge of Islam in the synodal process?
Don’t turn the Church into a marketplace of ideas for heterodox initiatives and inventions! Do something to renew the liturgy and catechesis in these anti-Christian times! More missionaries, fewer spin doctors.
Synodality has become a “hermeneutic” for all sorts of things, especially for the co-decision of lay people at all levels. The sacramentality of the ecclesiastical office (leadership) has been severely damaged by an egalitarian synodality that makes no distinction between the ordained and the non-ordained! This contradicts the teaching of the Second Vatican Council and the 2000-year-old apostolic structural laws of the Body of Christ!
Do not believe that in our part of the world, people are satisfied with “hearing” and “speaking in the Spirit.” Changes are demanded. After the lengthy and costly synodal process, those involved want to see results: a female deacon or dicastery prefect, the chancellor of the ordinariate; the abolition of celibacy due to a shortage of priests; the equality of ordained and non-ordained persons in ecclesiastical decision-making structures or committees; women in offices previously reserved for priests and bishops.
And while in secular organizations hierarchies remain unquestioned and untouched, with decisions being made by management or CEOs that must be followed and implemented without question by lower levels, synodality in the Church has become a code word for the opposite for many (a flat hierarchy; so-called power control; democratic, church-political processes; a functional understanding of office; replacing the good shepherd with collectives) and, last but not least, alternative, non-priestly forms of worship. The shepherd follows the sheep. The teacher learns from the student. Action determines what should be done. The majority determines the truth. The priest obeys the layperson. The bishop sits on the sidelines. And above all hovers the spirit. Which one?
