Feel like a castaway these days?  Feel like those who should have the greatest care of you have sloughed you off for the sake of the ways of the world?  You are not alone.

With that as a preamble, if you have not seen it yet, go to The Catholic Thing and read the piece by Bp. Athanasius Schneider about the working document or Instrumental Laboris for the upcoming Synod (“walking together”) on Synodality (“walking together-ity”) or SOS (and, truly, SOS… HELP US!).

A bishop gave it to me before it was publicly released.  After I threw up in mouth a few times, I decided not to write much about it.  On reflection, people need to know what is being perpetrated in their name.  You see, all sorts of shenanigans will be attempted at the SOS in the name of the faithful which the hierarchy is supposed to “confirm”.    If not, clerics who don’t go along are “against the Spirit” and own “restitution”.  What could go wrong?

Go over the The Catholic Thing and have a look, even a cursory look.

That “restitution” thing.  I’m not making that up.   The Instrumentum includes a “Question for discernment” under the heading

B. Communion, participation, mission. Three priority issues for the synodal Church.

[..]

B 3.2 How can we develop discernment practices and decision-making processes in an authentically synodal manner, that respects the protagonism of the Spirit?

So, the premise you are to admit … you ARE – TO – ADMIT!! – is that the Holy Spirit is the protagonist.  Originally a term from ancient drama, the protagonist is the “main character” or, by extension, the leader or principal person in a movement, cause.   Don’t you dare dissent.

Get this:

7) How can we deal constructively with cases in which those in authority feel they cannot confirm the conclusions reached by a community discernment process, taking a decision in a different direction? What kind of restitution should that authority offer to those who participated in the process?

Their role is to “confirm” what the “community” comes up with. Never mind if this community in this SoS (and who chose them?) come up with wacky stuff.  They must “confirm”.

When does one offer “restitution”?

Consultation of a dictionary reminds us.

The point of restitution is to return what has been lost or stolen or to repair the damage or injury that has been done so that things can be returned to how they originally were or as close as possible.

Firstly, this is hilarious.   If there is anyone in the Church who, in justice, ought to be offered restitution it would be those who desire traditional Catholic worship and doctrine.   Yes, please, gimme some of that “return to how things were”.

However, note that restitution is given to those who are harmed.  In this case, the “community” that came up with whatever goofy thing they came up with that serious bishops still having the Three Bs can’t go along with… because it’s a) stupid and b) not Catholic?

Say the SoS – which will be comprised now of a kind of Mos Eisley diverse mixture of people from various walks of life – never mind that this is supposed to be a meeting of the Synod (“walking together”) of BISHOPS – determines that, according to the Question for discernment under B 1.2 should be made concrete…

6) How can we create spaces where those who feel hurt by the Church and unwelcomed by the community feel recognised, received, free to ask questions and not judged? In the light of the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, what concrete steps are needed to welcome those who feel excluded from the Church because of their status or sexuality (for example, remarried divorcees, people in polygamous marriages, LGBTQ+ people, etc.)?

That part about polygamous marriages was frisky.  They forget bestiality, however, which is speciesist.

Again, you are simply to accept the premise that “concrete steps are needed”.  So, you are now to confirm the kind of concrete steps the discerning community came up with.

The questions are not questions.

Say that the SoS votes, or whatever it is they will do in a post-Pachamama Synod (“walking together”), perhaps consults entrails of former nuns booted from terminated backwardist convents, that Communion is not to be denied to the civilly divorced and remarried.  Say, then, that some bishops disagree and do not go along with the concrete steps demanded by the Spirit through the discerning community.

Those un-confirming bishops should offer restitution.  Why? Because people who put in tens, hundreds, maybe thousands of hours of hard work were denied what they wanted… er um… what the Holy Spirit told them we must have.   Since they and the whole Church – which is groaning not for the revelation of the sons of God but rather (pace St. Paul) for untrammeled distribution of the white thing during the gathering.   Those obstructionist bishops are hurting people.  Consequently, they must be made to pay.

Perhaps they should have a couple of right-thinking bishops sent on the sly for a visitation of their diocesan finances.

Check out Bp. Schneider’s piece.

BTW… S.O.S. a “prosign” used in Morse Code to call urgently for help. It is usually remembered mnemonically as being “Save Our Souls” and “Save Our Ship”. “Our Ship”. The Barque of Peter?

Lord, your Church often seems like a boat about to sink, a boat taking in water on every side. In your field we see more weeds than wheat. The soiled garments and face of your Church throw us into confusion. Yet it is we ourselves who have soiled them! It is we who betray you time and time again, after all our lofty words and grand gestures. Have mercy on your Church; within her too, Adam continues to fall. When we fall, we drag you down to earth, and Satan laughs, for he hopes that you will not be able to rise from that fall; he hopes that being dragged down in the fall of your Church, you will remain prostrate and overpowered. But you will rise again. You stood up, you arose and you can also raise us up. Save and sanctify your Church. Save and sanctify us all. All: Pater noster … Eia mater, fons amoris, me sentire vim doloris fac, ut tecum lugeam.

Joseph Card. Ratzinger – Via Crucis – 2005 – 9th Station

And I have a proposal for a much more effective “SOS”, one surely more pleasing to God.

“State buoni se potete… Be good if you can” (St. Philip Neri)

Take on some penances.

Go to confession.