Press Review: What Happened at the Synod on Synodality? (1)

Source: FSSPX News

From October 4 to 29, 2023, the Synod on Synodality was held in Rome. It was, in fact, the first phase of a Synod which will reconvene in October 2024, and which will be followed by the post-Synodal exhortation of the Pope taking what he wants from the Synthesis Report given to him by the Synod fathers and mothers—for this Synod, for the first time, is open to men and women, religious and laity.

At the end of this first stage, we can draw some conclusions which, for being provisional, are no less revelatory about the state of mind which drives the Synod organizers.

Democracy Declared and Authoritarianism Imposed

In Le Figaro on October 29, Jean-Marie Guénois expressed the general impression left by these three weeks of debate, under the meaningful title: “The first phase of the Synod suffered from the contradiction between the authoritarianism of the Pope and the democratic spirit the Synod claimed.” Here are the main excerpts of the story he wrote about this Synod session.

“The Catholic Church seems to have invented a new commandment: ‘Listen to your neighbor.’ It’s the central message of a letter sent Wednesday evening [October 25] to all the Catholics of the world, coming from the Synod about the future of the Church, assembled for a month until Sunday at the Vatican.

“It is thus not about listening to God, the Pope, or the bishops, but to lend an ear chiefly to the ‘poorest’: ‘To progress in its discernment, the Church absolutely needs to listen to everyone, starting with the poorest,’ it is written in the document.”

In concrete terms, according to the wording of this letter to the Catholics of the world, ‘It means listening to those who have been denied the right to speak in society or who feel excluded, even by the Church; listening to people who are victims of racism in all its forms – in particular in some regions to indigenous peoples whose cultures have been scorned.

“‘Above all, the Church of our time has the duty to listen, in a spirit of conversion, to those who have been victims of abuse committed by members of the ecclesial body, and to commit herself concretely and structurally to ensuring that this does not happen again.’”

Then in this Letter to the People of God comes the need to “listen to the laity, women and men,” then to “families” and to “those who want to be involved in lay ministries and to participate in discernment and decision-making structures.”

Jean-Marie Guénois notes a sizeable contradiction with “this new Catholic imperative, this listening in 360 degrees, from the bottom to the top even as far as outside the Church”: “Wednesday afternoon [at the time of the publication of the letter to the Catholics of the world], Francis all the same delivered an aggressive speech, published at his request, in which he extemporized on the Synod while sharply criticizing certain priests.

“This cast a chill on the reality of the practice of ‘listening’ and the Synodal spirit, all the while throwing into media obscurity the much-vaunted letter that the Synod had just released—a quarter hour earlier— which, however, advocated “listening” to the other.

“‘When the ministers exceed their service and mistreat the people of God, they disfigure the face of the Church with machismo and dictatorial attitudes,’ the Pope lashed out in his native language. He lamented ‘clericalism,’ giving this example: ‘it is enough to go into the ecclesiastical tailor shops in Rome to see the scandal of young priests trying on cassocks and hats, or albs and lace robes.

“‘Clericalism is a thorn, it is a scourge, it is a form of worldliness that defiles and damages.’ He excoriated ‘the scorn, mistreatment and marginalization of institutionalized clericalism. How naturally we speak of the princes of the Church, or of episcopal promotions as getting ahead career-wise!’ So many ‘horrors,’ so much ‘worldliness’ that ‘mistreats God's holy and faithful people.’

“A ‘people of God’ whose patience and humility he praised in its role as ‘infallible’ guardian of the Faith and of its transmission through ‘women,’ notably ‘mothers and grandmothers.’—An ‘authoritarianism’ of Francis which is in sharp contrast with the democratic spirit that he wants to breathe into the Church through this Synod, a paradox felt inside as well as outside the Synod.”

The Le Figaro journalist adds: “Another limit of the Synod was pointed out by certain participants: its actual representativeness. The question was accentuated by the policy of privacy imposed by Francis, who made the event occur behind closed doors. Elected President of United States bishops by an episcopate rather distant from Francis, Archbishop Timothy Broglio thus cooled enthusiasm, considering that no more than 1% of American Catholics felt involved in the debates...”