text: I am in Rome while the 2018 Synod (“walking together”) is slouching towards its predicted, rigged conclusion. I think we all knew that there would be shenanigans before the end. They’ve come now not single spies, but in battalions.
  #Synod18 sources: “Synodality” as a new model of the Church (i.e. permanent revolution) is now being imposed on the assembly, despite it not figuring highly in working document nor synod discussions. It dominates 3rd part of final doc. draft, has no connection with synod theme
  Two chapters in draft final document devoted to synodality (Anglican model of Church governance), despite the subject being hardly raised at #Synod18: Part III: Chapter 1: Synodality – Missionary Synodality in the Church; Chapter 2: Synodality in Our Daily Relationships
  Lest I violate the beauty of my day and mood, I will not multiply dire posts about the Synod (“walking together”) right now. Now I will sequester a few things here, under one heading.
  I saw a piece at Public Discourse which merits attention, speaking of becoming Protestant (as the Synod (“walking together”) organizers seem to desire:
  One does not have to be a Roman Catholic to appreciate the underlying concerns of the synod on youth that is currently ongoing in Rome, nor that of the document that was prepared as a basis for the discussion. That the church—any church—is only ever one generation from extinction may be a cliché, but it is nonetheless true. And so I have spent some time looking at the document upon which the synod is based—Instrumentum Laboris (IL)—to see if there is anything that a Protestant might find useful in its analysis and its proposals.
  Sadly, IL is a missed opportunity. It suffers from two basic flaws: it takes young people far too seriously, and it does not take young people seriously enough. That might seem like a somewhat paradoxical complaint, but it captures neatly the problem faced in a document which listens too much and says too little.
  The fear of losing customers, votes, students, or members can become an overriding concern for organizations that depend in practice upon a loyalty that can be as easily withdrawn as given. But the problem for the Catholic Church is that it has certain standards that are part of who she is. They are not negotiable, [You wouldn’t know that these days. This Protestant writer gets it.] however unattractive they might be to young people. So, the fact that some young people find the church’s teaching on contraception, abortion, and sexuality unattractive is interesting but, with the exception of explaining her position more clearly, there seems little the church can really do in response. Catholicism is defined by dogma, not by focus groups. Those who dislike her dogma but still want to belong to her face a hard but unavoidable choice. And failure to make this point—that Catholicism is dogmatic and therefore by definition exclusive—is emblematic of the timidity of the document as a whole. [“timidity”… right. And what young person wants to follow “Timidity”?]
  Whatever side one chooses in the Reformation of the sixteenth century—be it Bellarmine or Calvin—one thing is for sure: the Tridentine Catholics and the Magisterial Protestants were debating matters of real, ultimate significance. I am a Protestant by conviction and have very serious disagreements with Rome, but I regard traditional Catholicism as asking the right questions and providing substantial answers about the nature of sin, redemption, grace, faith, the sacraments, and eternal destiny. Christianity is a religion with a holy God and a tragic vision of a magnificent but fallen humanity at its core, so tragic that only a bloody sacrifice—the sacrifice of God Incarnate—can atone. I may reject the Mass but I can at least see that it marks the centerpiece of a serious theology and ecclesiology and is attempting to address the complexity of the human condition. By contrast Instrumentum Laboris points to a church which seems to be losing sight of those central issues. The Catholic Church could well be exchanging her theological birthright for a Mass of sociological potage.
  This entry was posted in Synod, The Coming Storm, The future and our choices and tagged Rigging The Synod, Synod, synodality. Bookmark the permalink.	
  “Synodality” essentially divides the Roman Catholic Church into many different factions while still falsely claiming they are united. (Synodality, of course, is heretical and anti-Catholic – not that the bishops or Cardinals or the Jesuit cares about heresy anymore.)
  This division makes it easier for groups (Freemasons, protestant sects, muslim sects, etc.) to take-over local Churches, then national Churches, etc., while still maintaining the label/brand of “Catholic” – which, while dwindling in its clout, still brings in a lot of money.
  So, local parishes and national “churches” can maintain the “catholic” label/brand (which, again, brings in more money than the Freemason, Wiccan, Protestant, United Church of the Ambiguous Holy Rainbow Cross, etc., labels) while not being Authentically Catholic at all.