Synod: Journey to the End of Boredom

The use of social networks sometimes produces a boomerang effect that not everyone is able to control: this is the bitter observation that the members of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops were able to make.

15 days after the publication of the document which is to serve as the basis for the work of the next assembly—a document already commented on by FSSPX.News—the organization led by Cardinal Mario Grech saw fit to put on its “X” account online a survey on the following question: “Do you believe that synodality as a path of conversion and reform can enhance the mission and participation of all the baptized?”

As the hours went by, the “No” responses became more pronounced, quickly reaching 88%, until the poll suddenly disappeared from the social network... This was enough to kindle the curiosity of Vaticanists, especially that of Carl Olson, editor for the conservative religious information site Catholic World Report (CWR).

Asking one of his contacts, the pastor of a large parish who had once worked at the Vatican, the man answered him: “No one really cares about it [...] “Nobody really knows what it means, and it has little or no bearing on their daily lives as Catholics.”

This point of view was confirmed by the recent survey conducted by the organization Catholic Laity and Clergy for Renewal, which asked a “representative” sample of 537 American Catholics. It came out that 7% of them had real knowledge of the synodal process.

Among these 7% of Catholics familiar with the Synod, there are 3 blocs: the first, the majority, who remain indifferent to the direction of the Synod, and those who respectively agree and disagree with the process undertaken.

How can we explain what seems like a disavowal of the synodal approach? Perhaps because, until now, the literary production of the Synod more closely resembles a dull logorrhea than a luminous theological synthesis: in this regard, the lexical study conducted by Carl Olson is interesting.

The essayist sifted through the Instrumentum laboris (IL) of July 9 in great detail: his study shows that in more than 20,000 words, there are 148 occurrences of the term “communion,” 60 of “process/es,” and 89 of “unity.” “Discern/ment” appears 61 times, “context” 50 times, “listen/ing” 48 times, “experience” 32 times, and “dialogue” 30 times.

The occurrence of terms with a more doctrinal consonance more or less follow the curve of the electroencephalogram of a patient in a deep coma: “dogma” and “deposit of faith” do not appear even once, “divine revelation” appears a single time like “doctrine,” “teaching” and “catechesis” twice. The term “redeemed” is found only once.

The reader can see for himself by reading the introduction to the second part of the IL, a masterpiece of emptiness: “A synodal Church is a relational Church in which interpersonal dynamics form the fabric of the life of a mission-oriented community, whose life unfolds within increasingly complex contexts. The approach proposed here does not separate but grasps the links between experiences.”