Apparent Synodality and Creeping Authority

Source: FSSPX News

On November 25, 2024, Pope Francis published an Accompanying Note to the final document of the Synod on Synodality, held in Rome throughout the month of October. In it, he reaffirms what he had said on October 26, at the close of the Synod: he will not draft a post-synodal apostolic exhortation.

The Note makes this explicit: “Recognizing the value of the synodal journey accomplished, I now entrust to the entire Church the indications contained in the final document, as a restitution of what has matured over these years, through listening and discernment, and as an authoritative orientation for its life and mission.”

Given its approval by the Pope, the final document therefore constitutes “an exercise of the authentic teaching of the Bishop of Rome,” in accordance with his speech of October 17, 2015 on the relationship between synodality and hierarchy, Francis recalls. The local Churches are now called to start work on this text, “through the processes of discernment and decision provided for by law and by the document itself,” he explains.

“The conclusion of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops does not put an end to the synodal process,” he insists, indicating without further details that other groups could be added to the ten study groups already established “with a view to necessary decisions.” – Clearly, the synod is over in Rome, but everything begins on the ground.

Francis adds: “The final document contains indications which, in the light of its fundamental orientations, can already be implemented in the local Churches and groups of Churches, taking into account the different contexts, what has already been done and what remains to be done.”

According to him, "It will be possible to proceed, through synodal discernment and within the framework of the possibilities indicated by the final document, to the creative activation of new forms of ministry and missionary action, by experimenting and submitting the experiences to verification."

Beyond the jargon that operates here like a smokescreen, there is indeed a desire to impose on the bishops an obligation of results: the Church must become "synodal" [that is, more "inclusive," less "hierarchical," according to the current jargon], and the mitered officials must show themselves zealous.

The Pope hopes that during the next ad limina visits, each bishop will be able to indicate "what choices have been made in the local Church entrusted to him in relation to what is indicated in the final document, what difficulties have been encountered, what have been the fruits."

And for greater certainty, the passage of bishops to the General Secretariat of the Synod is now obligatory within the framework of these visits made to Rome every five years. "On the basis of the orientations offered by the final document, the General Secretariat of the Synod and the dicasteries of the Roman Curia will have the responsibility of accompanying the implementation of the synodal path," warns the Pope.

What are the points on which episcopal docility will be controlled? Here is one among many others. The Roman agency I.Media compared the draft of the final document and its final version adopted by the Pope. This comparison reveals changes and additions from one version to the other that will not be without influence on the implementation of the synod in the dioceses.

One of the most reworked paragraphs is number 60, on women: the female diaconate was completely absent from the draft, but it is mentioned in the final text as a possibility that “remains open.” However, it is this paragraph that had aroused the most reluctance during the synod, since 97 members had voted against it. No matter!

The bishops who fail to concretely demonstrate their “openness” on the question of the female diaconate will be suspected of resistance to the final document which is part of the “authentic teaching of the Bishop of Rome.”

An Iron Fist in a Synodal Glove

On November 4, Vatican expert Sandro Magister took stock of the synods under the Francis’ pontificate. This reminder is eloquent. Under the explicit title: Anything but synodal. The curious Church that Pope Francis wants, he puts the last synod into perspective in an enlightening way.

Sandro Magister writes: “Three years of discussions without end, crowned by a document that is not final. This is the synod desired and molded by Pope Francis with the apparent purpose of refounding the Church as a Church of the people, of all the baptized.”

“What the upshot will be is hard to predict. Francis expunged from this last synod all the questions on which there were strong divisions, delegating them to the ten commissions that will continue to discuss them until next spring. After which he will be the one to decide what to do.” While asking that the final document be implemented in the dioceses, since approved by the Pope this document belongs to the ordinary magisterium.

If we look at the way Francis proceeded from the beginning – during the first synod on the family – we can build some conjectures on the last one, without risking being very wrong. The Italian journalist recalls: “At the first synod he convened in two sessions, in 2014 and 2015, on the theme of the family, Francis had a clear objective, the liberalization of Eucharistic communion for the divorced and remarried.”

“To this end he set up a preliminary consistory of all the cardinals, in February 2014, but immediately encountered such strong and authoritative opposition that he was induced to curb the transparency of the discussion in the synod.”

"And in fact he imposed secrecy on the presentations in the assembly, of which only a generic list of the topics touched upon was made public, without giving the names of the respective speakers. News of the liveliness of the clash for or against communion for the divorced and remarried leaked out anyway.”

"And this induced the pope to resolve the issue, in the post-synodal exhortation Amoris laetitia, [March 19, 2016], in an ambiguous way, with a couple footnotes that some episcopates interpreted as an authorization to give communion while others remained against it, ony to then say, in a handwritten letter to the Argentine episcopate subsequently elevated to the rank of magisterium, that the correct interpretation was the former."

For the last synod, Sandro Magister presents his object - synodality - as "a theme that Francis succeeded in putting ahead of the questions that at first had taken center stage in the wake of the ‘synodal path’ in Germany: from homosexuality to female priesthood, from the end of clerical celibacy to the democratization of Church governance.”

“With the pope having removed these issues from the agenda and entrusted them to commissions he created ‘ad hoc’ and with an uncertain future, for the synod there was nothing left but to discuss how to make the Church a synodal Church.”

“And how to discuss this? No longer in plenary assemblies, nor even in linguistic circles, but at dozens of tables of a dozen people each, in an audience hall set up as if for a grand gala dinner. Always with the constraint of secrecy on what everyone said or heard at his respective table. It is difficult to imagine a more fragmented and muzzled synod than this, the exact opposite of the much vaunted new synodality.”

“But there is more. Because between on synodal session and another, and precisely on a question removed from the discussion of those summoned, it was the pope who decided alone, with an edict issued by his ‘alter ego’ set at the head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Argentine Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández.”

“With the declaration Fiducia supplicans [December 18, 2023] Francis authorized the blessing of homosexual unions. With the result of raising a massive wave of protests and rejections, especially among the bishops of the only continent on which the Catholic Church is growing, Africa."

In this comparison, we see both for the synod on the family and for the one on synodality, the same way of proceeding in two stages: consulting the synod fathers in the greatest secrecy, and passing, on his own initiative, communion to the divorced and civilly remarried and the blessing of homosexual couples, outside the synod and dismissing all opposing opinions.