All of this ‘Synodality’ nonsense really needs to stop. I pray that the Holy Spirit will grant Pope Leo the wisdom to realize this.
Anyone with a lick of sense can see what is going with the Synod. One of the Synod on Synodality’s main goals is to change Church teachings that cannot be changed.
I’m far from alone in this assessment. Bishop Joseph Strickland writes, at his website, “The recent report issued by Study Group 9 of the Synod on Synodality is deeply alarming and stands in direct contradiction to the constant teaching of the Catholic Church regarding human sexuality, sin, marriage, and the moral law.”
Fr. Gerald Murray concurs in a recent essay at The Catholic Thing.
“This report attempts to dismiss Catholic teaching on the inherent immorality of homosexual acts – and the disordered nature of the homosexual inclination – by stigmatizing that teaching as the expression of an obsolete “paradigm” that no longer can be relied upon to communicate God’s will to His people.”
And therein is, as a poker player might say, is the Synod’s “tell.”
The Group 9 report calls for, “A paradigm shift.” More specifically it calls for “the implementation of a “paradigm shift” (cf. VG 3) from the prevalent paradigms of past centuries as regards the way of interpreting and expressing the proclamation of the Gospel and the mission of the Church.”
New Think
A “paradigm shift” is a fundamental change in concepts, practices, and assumptions within a given a field, system or organization. It means replacing a former way of thinking with a brand new one. So, according to the Group 9 report, Church teaching on human sexuality, sin, marriage, and the moral law needs to change. But these teachings cannot change.
Dr. Robert Fastiggi, Professor of Systematic Theology, Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Detroit MI, clarified this in a CS article I wrote 10 years ago.
“I believe the Church’s teaching on marriage as possible only between one man and one woman is infallible by virtue of the ordinary and universal Magisterium,” says Fastiggi. “A Catholic who obstinately denies or calls into doubt this truth would be guilty of at least material heresy. This would become formal heresy if the person, after warning by competent ecclesial authority, like the local bishop or the Holy See, refuses to give assent to this truth of the faith.
“The same would apply, I believe, to one who justifies homosexual acts. Some theologians might argue that these teachings are definitive doctrines of the Church rather than truths revealed by God. It seems to me, though, that the nature of marriage and the immorality of homosexual acts are truths made quite clear in Sacred Scripture and by the ordinary and universal Magisterium.”
Subverting Catholic Teaching
Why, then, is the Synod even discussing Church teaching on human sexuality, sin, marriage, and the moral law? It does not seem to make a lot of sense. That is, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to anyone who is not A Wolf in Sheep’ Clothing.
But then again, not much that the progressives within the Catholic Church say makes much sense to intelligent, rationale, devout Catholics. The language the progressives use is akin to George Orwell’s ‘newspeak,’ wherein ‘bad’ becomes ‘good.’
I’m going to float a conspiracy theory here that is more than just plausible.
In the EWTN documentary “A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing” (click on above link to watch the documentary) Bella Dodd, a “ranking official in the American Communist Party,” testified before Congress in 1953. Her testimony included information about the Communist party’s planned subversion of the Catholic Church.
In her testimony Dodd stated, “In the 1930s we put eleven hundred man into the priesthood in order to destroy the Church from within . . . Right now they are in the highest places in the Church.”
Bishop Fulton J. Sheen brought Dodd back into the Church in 1952. A year later she testified before Congress, as a Catholic, under oath. So it’s a safe bet to conclude that her testimony was true and accurate.
It’s also a safe bet to conclude that by then at least a few of these infiltrators had risen to the rank of bishop and maybe even to cardinal by 1953. Many others were possibly in other influential positions. They could have become seminary and Catholic university professors and theologians. They could also have achieved positions in Vatican congregations (now called dicasteries), in bishoprics and in parishes worldwide.
Just six years after Dodd’s testimony Pope John XXIII announced plans for a second Vatican Council. The council’s aim was to bring the Catholic Church up to date (“aggiornamento”). It’s probably a safe bet to conclude that one or more of the infiltrators were influential in drawing up at least some of the documents that came out of Vatican II. It’s also quite possible one or more of them they were behind the creation of the Novus Ordo Mass.
(On a side note, after you watch the EWTN documentary, read “The View from the Laity: A Response to Fr. Gill” by Robert B. Greving at Crisis. Greving adroitly points out that the Novus Ordo Mass shifts the focus from God to the people at Mass – Communism in action.)
The Lingering Effects of Vatican II
Fr. Jerry Pokorsky recently re-printed a satirical article he anonymously wrote when he was a seminarian in 1987. He modeled the article after “The Devil’s Dictionary,” a series of articles that ran from 1881 to 1906 in a weekly American newspaper.
Fr. Pokorsky’s piece took aim at the “mostly doctrinally dissident” rhetoric in seminaries following Vatican II. Fr. Pokorsky says his article was “satire” but I tend to think it was more truthful than satirical. It fits right in with what the Church is still dealing with following Vatican II – the desire by “progressives” (the infiltrators) to change Church teaching. It’s well worth reading because it is still ‘on the mark’ today. (His words and definitions are all so good that I couldn’t decide which ones to offer as examples. You’ll just have to read the article!)
“The final report of Study Group 9, and all documents from the 2024 synod, will be subject to a process of evaluation and implementation, from the diocesan level to national episcopal conferences, beginning this summer and culminating in the final Ecclesial Assembly at the Vatican in October 2028,” according to Edward Pentin.
The final phase of the Synod on Synodality – the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops – was scheduled to take place at the Vatican in October 2023. Instead, study groups were formed to do a ‘deep dive’ into the “experiences and materials” that were “discerned” during the process.
I hope all of the nonsensical rhetoric truly comes to end in 2028. But I have a feeling it won’t. Yet, we know it’s all for nothing because St. Joseph and the Holy Spirit are on guard, protecting the Church from error. And we know Christ’s Church wins in the end.
In the meantime, I guess, we will just have to put up with all the hiccups. But all this nonsense sure is annoying!
