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.
Tweets from Ed Pentin, the best English language Vaticanista around:
#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
— Edward Pentin (@EdwardPentin) October 25, 2018
Note that phrase “permanent revolution”, which is a byword of Marxism.
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
— Edward Pentin (@EdwardPentin) October 25, 2018
You might also read Ed Pentin’s piece HERE.
If I had wanted to be an Anglican, I would have converted to Anglicanism.
I don’t want to be an Anglican.
How to rig a Synod? There are so many ways. They all involve, however, raw imposition of will.
How to react to all this?
Get organized. Network.
Get our your Catechisms and form “base communities”.
Get the TLM introduced.
Get yourself TO CONFESSION!
UPDATE:
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:
A Protestant Look at the Dogmatic Timidity of the Current Roman Catholic Synod
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.
The Protestant writer gets what the Synod organizers do not.
Or do they get it and simply not care? What’s their agenda?
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Putting two and two together:
“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.
While numerous factions do indeed want to destroy God’s One True Holy Roman Catholic Church, they also know that changing the label will result in less money for them. So, they will probably compromise by keeping the Roman Catholic label but not being Catholic at all.
Diabolical indeed.
Hmmm. We should say a Hail Mary for that guy. It sounds like he’s one book away from being Catholic. Maybe, “Appologia pro Vita Sua.”
This retired Bishop is really fired-up: https://abyssum.org/ You can scroll-down and see what he says about the completely new mass offered at the youth synod.
Completely disillusioned, under the previous two pontificates I knew what the Church stood for, what it taught, today it seems as if it is raising the white flag and giving in to modernity, all of the synod fathers, frankly, apart from one or two exceptions (we all know who they are), are cowards. When Pope Francis was elected, I read an article about him by Robert Moynihan in Inside the Vatican that appeared to be very encouraging. I am afraid he has disappointed me immensely, I do not feel the same towards him as I did under his two predecessors, primarily for the lack of clarity and his willingness to surround him with dubious individuals. Nevertheless I will continue to pray for him and pray that the Church can return to what it did best, unashamedly proclaim the truths of the faith without seeking to surrender to the modern world
The issue with both the Synod fathers and with young people, actually both young and old, is that everyone’s become morally and spiritually lazy. This is what happens when priests and lay people start redefining sin or eliminating sin all together. And why does it always come down to sex? There is no scientific evidence that a person can from NOT having sex. However, there’s plenty of proof that a person CAN die from sex.
This is extremely worrisome, given that, if this version of Synodality (which BTW is a manifest perversion of the original Jesuit concept of it, which instead is based around Episcopal Sovereignty as such as a co-operative but NOT collegial activity) were to be actively promoted by the Roman Pontiff, in his post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, then it would become increasingly hard for ordinary and orthodox Faithful Catholics to ignore or even just shrug off accusations of Heresy against the Pontiff.
This Pontificate is in any case becoming more and more difficult to endure.
When the movie of this strange time in the history of the Church is made, I am wondering if it will be called “The Manichaean Candidate”.
Synodality wherein truth is determined by a vote.
Even the Proestants can see that the Synod documents sound less like the Catholic Church and more like a “compassionate NGO.”
“The Catholic Church could well be exchanging her theological birthright for a Mass of sociological potage.”
Ouch……and I am afraid the protestant writer is spot on too well. It’s not that the Church herself is losing sight of her theological birthright…..but the stewards in charge of her at the moment that are attempting to steer her in the wrong direction.
May the Holy Spirit intervene and correct the present situation that is happening in the Church’s leadership.
@ MrsMacD
“Hmmm. We should say a Hail Mary for that guy. It sounds like he’s one book away from being Catholic.”
He seems to have a strong enough grasp of what’s important compared to some of our present bishops that perhaps if he gets just a little bit closer, we’ll be able to spring the ol’ St. Ambrose maneuver on him.
Speaking of which, St. Ambrose and other bishops had the courage to stand up to the Arians at the Synod of Aquilea, no doubt a critical defense of orthodoxy at a time when the Church was struggling with widespread adherence to a then-modern heresy. He also excommunicated a nominally Catholic and popular politician, yet lifted the penalty again when Theodosius repented, demonstrating justice and mercy as complementary concepts, rather than exclusive.
Synodality as a new ecclesial model…
This is when the tendency of young people to ignore things (said by older people) that they think are stupid may prove helpful.