LET THE SYNOD BEGIN: REFLECTIONS, RESERVATIONS AND RESOLVE
Depending on where in the world you live, as you start to read this report, you may want to start brewing coffee or perhaps fill an over-sized glass with Prosecco!
With all that I offer herein, I have not even mentioned the Pope’s homily at the Mass this morning with the new cardinals to open the Synod on Synodality or the presentation today, feast of St. Francis of Assisi, of the Pope’s latest Apostolic Exhortation, Laudate Deum (Praise God), a kind of sequel or Part II to his 2015 document on the environment, Laudato Si!
As I write, my brain is going into overdrive, trying to do several things simultaneously, things it is not basically trained to do at the same time: reading documents, listening to the speeches of the synod officials as they open the 2023 gathering, following two years of work and planning, and typing this report. There is multi-tasking and there is multi-tasking at another level!
The Synod on Synodality is opening as I write in the Paul VI Hall in the presence of Pope Francis. There are 464 participants, of whom 365, including Pope Francis, are synod members.
Photos Daniel Ibanez: EWTN
As the Vatican publishes the texts of today’s speakers, in toto or in part, I will publish links on “Joan’s Rome.” (Pope Francis: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2023-10/pope-to-synod-may-christ-lead-the-way.html)
Much has been said and written in the over two years since the Holy Father announced this Synod on Synodality.
Interestingly enough. the main question on most everyone’s lips today is: what exactly is synodality? Is it a procedure! Is it a method! Is it the outcome of a method?
No precise, single, official definition of synodality has been offered, although many definitions, explanations, examples have been used over the past years. At the first press conference to present the Synod on Synodality, one journalist rose to ask a question, saying he was asking on behalf of his colleagues. “We do not understand what ‘synodality’ is,” he said, “Can you please define it, explain it?”
The answer given was. We shall know more about synodality when the synod works start!
So, I guess we are about to learn what synodality is!
I attended a totally riveting conference yesterday afternoon titled “The Babel Synodality (‘babel’ understood in the sense of ‘confusion’!) that featured Cardinal Raymond Burke, Fr. Gerald Murray, pastor, Canon Law expert and prolific author, and Italian professor Fontana, who spoke on synodality! All spoke in Italian and when I have English texts I will pass them on.
Cardinal Robert Sarah was in the front row of guests in attendance at the conference in a theatre just outside Vatican City.
Fr. Murray highlighted the synod vis-a-vis Canon Law, referencing the early history of the body known as the Synod of Bishops, how Pope Francis has changed this and how some aspects of the current synod contradicts elements of Canon Law. He looked at the Instrumentum Laboris (Working document) of the synod, noting that he could not find a papal signature or or approval of the IL.
He quoted several statements made by synod officials to the media that he found troubling. For example, Cardinal Hollerich, the relator general of the synod, told journalist Diane Montagna in an interview, “it is not our work to promote the teaching of the Church.”
Really?
What then is the work of a synod?
Cardinal Burke, noting how Prof. Fontana “unmasked the errors of the Synod of Bishops and the Synod on Synodality,” spoke of the confusion that has arisen because of this synod. He highlighted the confusion today on morality and Church doctrine and magisterial teachings, saying “there is a risk we lose our identity as Church.” Is this “a willed confusion?” he asked.
Noting that “we define, indeed pray, that the Church is one, holy, Catholic and apostolic,” the cardinal asked: “Are we now to add synodal?
He spoke of what was in the synod, vis a vis the working document, and what was not in the synod, saying “Our Lord Jesus Christ, our only savior, is not at the root and center of synodality” which “overlooks and, to be honest, forgets the divine nature of the Church.”
To great applause, he spoke of the 5 dubia that he and four other cardinals had sent to Pope Francis in a signed letter, noting many other cardinals were on board but had not signed the July letter to Francis.
The dubia concerned the interpretation of Divine
Revelation, the blessing of same-sex unions, synodality as constitutive dimension of the Church, the priestly ordination of women and repentance as a necessary condition for sacramental absolution.
Cardinal Burke said the questions, the dubia, “had nothing to do with the person of the Holy Father” but rather “showed respect for the office of the Successor of Peter,” as the teacher of unity in the faith. The questions asked of the Pope were intended, he said, to clear up mistaken perceptions about five questions of faith, dealing as they did with “perennial doctrine and discipline of the Church.”
Cardinal Burke at one point highlighted an interview that Edward Pentin of the National Catholic Register did with (then Cardinal-designate) Victor Fernandez, new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the faith.
He spoke passionately about “a fundamental error recently expressed by the new Prefect (Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, ed.) of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in an interview he gave to Edward Pentin of the National Catholic Register. During the interview he declared that, in addition to the deposit of the Faith, the Roman Pontiff has a “living and active gift” which results in what he defines as “the doctrine of the Holy Father”[21]. Furthermore, he accuses of heresy and schism[22] those who criticize this “doctrine of the Holy Father.”
“But the Church has never taught that the Roman Pontiff has a special gift to constitute his own doctrine. The Holy Father is the first master of the deposit of faith which is always alive and dynamic in itself. This is what the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei verbum, of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council teaches:
«Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture constitute a single sacred deposit of the word of God entrusted to the Church. Adhering to it, all the holy people, united with their Pastors, constantly persevere in the teaching of the Apostles and in communion, in the breaking of bread and in prayers (cf. Acts 2, 42 gr.), so that in holding, practicing and profess the faith transmitted, a singular unity of spirit is created between Bishops and faithful.”
“We must reflect,” said Cardinal Burke, ” on the gravity of the ecclesial situation when the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith accuses of heresy and schism those who ask the Holy Father to exercise the Petrine Office to safeguard and promote the depositum fidei.”
I have only posted a small part of the tip of the icebergs that were talks by Cardinal Burke and Fr. Murray, but ylou get the idea.
I felt like I had received a transfusion yesterday aft!ernoon, a transfusion of energy to continue my work of promoting and proclaiming the teachings of the Church, a transfusion of faith and of hope
Joan's Rome 