
Vatican City, Sep 18, 2017 / 01:57 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Nearly four years after the Pope established his Council of Cardinal advisers to help him in the task of reforming the Roman Curia, one member of the group said their work is wrapping up, and that it could take only a few more meetings to finish what they set out to do.
The ongoing process of reform “is being done at various stages of development, and I hope we’ll come to an end in all of these matters soon,” Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Bombay told CNA Sept. 14.
“It will take two or three more meetings more,” he said, adding that “by June perhaps we’ll be seeing the end of the tunnel.”
Cardinal Gracias is also President of the Asian Bishops Conference and in 2013 was chosen by the Pope along with eight other prelates from around the world to advise him in matters of Church governance and reform.
He spoke to CNA in a lengthy, sit-down interview after the council – also called the “C9” – concluded their latest round of meetings last week.
As far as the reform goes, Cardinal Gracias said “there won’t be very major changes; it’s the governance of the Church, we can’t just turn everything upside down.” Rather, it will be “a gradual change, a change of mentality, a change of approach, restructuring a bit of the departments so that they are more logically suited to the needs of today.”
He said a key goal of the C9 is to implement the vision of the Second Vatican Council, specifically when it comes to the importance of the role of the laity and women, and incorporating greater synodality and collegiality into the Church’s structures.
From the beginning Pope Francis “had very clear what he wanted this group to do,” the cardinal said. “He had no hesitation, he’s a good leader. He had a clear vision.”
Cardinal Gracias admitted that in the beginning he had doubts as to whether or not they were going in the right direction, and had started to worry what people on the outside might say, since many fruits of the meetings weren’t and likely won’t be immediately visible. He said he also struggled with doubts about the pace at which they were moving, and believed that things were going “too slow.”
“I will confess that once at the beginning I was wondering, ‘are we going in the right direction?’ I asked myself. But now I can see it is,” he said, explaining that Pope Francis’ Christmas speech to the Roman Curia last year was a “tipping point” for him.
More than anything, there is a change in mentality that’s needed, which will take longer than simply reforming the Vatican’s structures, he said, but said the group is “rather confident that it will happen because the Pope is giving very effective leadership.”
In addition to the ongoing curial reform, Cardinal Gracias also spoke about the recent release of Indian priest Fr. Tom Uzhunnalil 18 months after he was abducted in Yemen. He also spoke about the Pope’s upcoming trip to Myanmar and Bangladesh, and when a possible papal trip to India might take place.
Below are excerpts from CNA’s interview with Cardinal Gracias:
You’ve seen Fr. Tom and you were at his meeting with Pope Francis. How is he doing?
I was pleasantly surprised with calmness with which he came out, because he did not know, to my knowledge, that he was being released. But he said I know people have prayed for me, I’m grateful for the people who were praying for me, but he kept on saying ‘Jesus is great, Jesus is great.’ And then he told the Holy Father. It was a very moving moment. As soon as the Holy Father came he prostrated in front of the Holy Father and kissed his feet, and he said, ‘thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you Holy Father, but just one message I want to give you: Jesus Christ is great. Jesus was with me right through, I could sense the presence of God with me’…And once I thought the Holy Father had tears in his eyes. When Tom kept on speaking about Jesus, this is what he told the Holy Father: please tell the people that Jesus is great! I would say that he’s come out of it with an experience of the presence of the Lord, and I think at that moment the Holy Father had tears in his eyes…I met the Holy Father later that afternoon, and he was telling me how impressed he was. He was also surprised with the calmness of the man, with Tom…He was a man who is perhaps strengthened in the faith after this experience, and not bitter about anything. Particularly about his captors, he was very understanding. It was a special experience, very edifying. He needs rest, certainly, he’ll have a medical exam and he’ll be with his superiors, but eventually he’ll go back (to India). So thank God really. It was an anxious moment for the whole Church in India. We didn’t know what was happening, but we understood that putting more pressure, in the perspective of the government, could make things more difficult for him. (But) he’s not really stressed in any way you can make out. Physically weak, but spiritually strong. When he met the Holy Father, he was weeping right through it. And the Holy Father was very touched, he kissed his hand and blessed him…He felt the comfort and strength of the entire Church. As he said, there was never a moment when he felt abandoned, either by the Church or by God. He kept saying, ‘Jesus is great.’ So he came out spiritually strengthened in that sense. It was a big relief, a big blessing, and the Holy Father was overjoyed. I think the government of Oman did a very splendid job of helping out…they even brought a Salesian to accompany him on the last plane. It was very human of them, so had the comfort of a spiritual companion.
What role did the Holy See play in working out his release?
They only offered help, they kept the issue open and kept sharing. The Holy See was told he was alive, and the Holy See communicated with the Indian government. In Yemen, the political situation is very fragile, and one doesn’t know who is in charge. There are bombardments and all sorts of groups are taking over, so there was always a risk I suppose, that if you tried to liberate him you could have harmed him. But they were always interested, they kept it alive. Every time I came to Rome somebody from the Secretariat of State updated me. The Vatican made sure there was interest. Any information the Holy See had, they shared it with the Indian government, the Omani government, so that was good.
It’s interesting that there is still no word on who is responsible…
It’s not a terrorist attack, it’s a kidnapping. They wouldn’t glory in taking him. That has not come out. I spent about half an hour with him before the Holy Father, and he was speaking continuously. I did not at any point attempt to ask him questions, because I think that would be a stress for him. He has got to share…he wants to share it and then I imagine you feel lighter. He’s probably just got to rest, and rest and rest, physically and then mentally too, he’s got to get it out of his mind. He’s not come out of it a broken man at all. I was afraid of that, that he would come out a broken man, but no…It’s a moment of grace, a moment of faith, a special experience. The high point was when he told the Holy Father, ‘just tell everybody that Jesus is great, Jesus is great.’ Just three simple words. That was like the sum of his whole experience, what he meant and why he meant it…he felt not abandoned, I suppose. I hope recovers. I imagine he needs a couple of months really, or maybe more than a couple of months, to really rest. He needs time with the family also, natural circumstances…I’m not sure about this, but I have a feeling that the Omani government decided to bring him to Rome, because they (wanted) to hand him over to the Vatican. I think it was better for him, because I think if he had gone to India he would have been mobbed by everybody. He just needs space to recover, and for doctors to examine him. Physically to see if he’s alright, and psychologically also, to be investigated. I think it was a wise decision, but I think it was a decision more of the Omani government.
I don’t want to exploit your time, but I wanted to ask a few questions about the process of reform and the C9. You just finished your latest round of meetings…
Yes, we just finished the latest round, the 21st meeting. I can’t imagine we’ve had 21. I didn’t realize it’s 21 already. I think we are working hard. What’s nice is that we’re a cohesive group now. In the beginning we were all (gestures). Now we know each other so well and we work together, and of course trying to implement the Holy Father’s vision of the Church. Also, one of the things we always say, and it’s very clear, before the conclave the cardinals had spoken a lot of their vision of the Church, and we have the texts of what all of the cardinals said, and all the cardinals gave their vision. We picked up from that, the Holy Father picked up from that, his own vision. We’ve focused so far … it’s for a dual purpose that the group was formed: one is to help him help him in the governance of the universal Church, and the second is to revise Pastor bonus, the papal document of St. John Paul II for establishing the Curia and giving the job descriptions and the vision of each dicastery. It’s to revitalize, I suppose that’s what Pope Francis wants us to do, and to have a new mentality which is applying Vatican II also; how to make the Roman Curia at the service of the Holy Father more effectively, but the Churches at the local level, the Churches in the dioceses, how to make the Roman Curia assist the local Churches to be more effective pastorally, so they can be more vibrant in that sense. So I think the holy Father is satisfied with what’s happening. I’m satisfied too with the way we are going ahead. We come for three days and work intensely, we work from 9:00 on the first day to 7:00 (pm) on the last day trying to wrap things up, but lots of work has been done. But it’s coming to the end. I think it will take maybe two or three more meetings until we wrap up our conclusions about the dicasteries. Then of course the Holy Father will study the thing and decide. So we’re going well. The feedback we receive is the Holy Father is happy, he is satisfied, and he has been using the Christmas messages sometimes to give an indication, a little progress report, so this year’s Christmas message (2016). I didn’t realize it, but when I read it I realized it’s practically giving a progress report of what this group has been doing. I hope that it will make an impact. There won’t be very major changes; it’s the governance of the Church, we can’t just turn everything upside down. But a gradual change, a change of mentality, a change of approach, restructuring a bit of the departments so that they are more logically suited to the needs of today, and also of answering the vision of the Second Vatican Council: the importance of lay people, synodality, collegiality, then concern about women, getting more women involved, then giving importance to the local Churches. Then reflecting on the role of episcopal conferences in all this, because that’s another big issue. So all of this is being done at various stages of development, and I hope we’ll come to an end in all of these matters soon. It will take two or three more meetings more, I foresee at least February, June…by June perhaps we’ll be seeing the end of the tunnel.
It’s been a long process…
It’s been a really long process, really, but it’s good. I’ve been in other committees of this sort, in which at the beginning we don’t what we’re doing, where to begin, and they you find your way and you find your vision. But here it was very clear, the Holy Father had very clear what he wanted this group to do…we were not clear in why we were called and what he wanted to do, but gradually we understood his mind. He had no hesitation, he’s a good leader. He had a clear vision and he had his people with him. He’s there with us, he genuinely doesn’t take any other appointments. He’s there except the general audience. There are emergencies of course, this time there were lots of things happening, but he participates and he listens to discussion, and every now and then he raises his hand when he wants to speak. It’s very odd, but now we’re accustomed to it, the Pope raising his hand (laughs) … it’s very valuable, he’s part of the discussion all the way through, completely inserted right in the thick of it. Certainly he doesn’t speak that much, because I think we would feel inhibited and want to go in his direction. So it’s just the right amount and at the right time.
Well he’s very much about the process, isn’t he? He doesn’t want to interrupt the process that’s happening…
Yes, absolutely. And he’s happy. And everybody speaks their mind. We know each other so well, and we know that the Holy Father wants us to speak our minds, so no one is at any stage (overly) conscious that the Pope is there with us, no…but it’s going well, I think it’s going well. I will confess that once at the beginning I was wondering, ‘are we going in the right direction?’ I asked myself. But now I can see it is. He’s a man of deep faith, the Pope. I remember having spoken to him once about the synod, I was sharing him my anxieties on whether the synods were going well, and he told me, ‘Cardinal, I am not worried.’ He told me that. I told him I was worried, I don’t know what direction we’re taking, whether we’ll be able in two synods to give your vision. (He said) ‘I’m not worried. It’ll work out.’ He knows what he wants, he’s a good Jesuit, and the Jesuits know exactly what they want.
At what point were you convinced that things were going in the right direction?
After about seven or eight or nine meetings, I was beginning to wonder. My worry was what will the world say? Everybody knows we’re meeting over here, but we are very limited in what we say are the fruits. What are these eight men – nine, we became nine after the Secretary (of State) joined – the nine cardinals are coming and discussing here, what’s happening? They’re not just coming here for debate. I was worried about the fruits not being seen, and the process being too slow. But then, especially after I heard the Holy Father’s speech (at Christmas 2016), for me that was it. I was like, wow, there has been a lot done. That was absolutely…this past Christmas, it was like a progress report of this group. I’m in the group, right, but I never realized the number of things we had really discussed. Besides modifying the document, the protection of minors, the economy, updates on these things, general principles of collegiality, synodality, we’re thinking about these things. Care of the Curia personnel. It’s everything that the Holy Father…he isn’t like us, who when we go back home we’re fully in the diocese, he has this in mind and he keeps working on this fully afterwards. We go back to our dioceses and are concerned about the local Church, but he certainly follows up with what we say. I’ve seen it several times. He takes the group very seriously. Every now and then he would ask us to take up some point on the agenda to discuss it a bit, which he wants advice on. I think it’s a new system he has started in which he gets feedback from all over the world, and he gets it from the grassroots. I think, anyway, I hope. We come from different continents and we bring in our own experiences. But it is going well. In fact I really, really think there has been a contribution to the Holy Father, and then the Holy Father takes decisions. I have a feeling this is shared by all now. I have no doubt, this would be the general feeling of all about it. The tipping point was really his speech, but already before that, say about six or seven months before that, we began to see really when we reflected that…perhaps the Holy Father knew that that was in our minds. It was in my mind, and maybe I expressed it indirectly. And the Holy Father once commented also, he said ‘we have done this much, so don’t get discouraged.’ So at one stage he sort of answered that doubt in my mind.
You mentioned that there’s also a change of mentality needed. Other than the structural shifts, it seems that the change of mentality will be the more challenging task…
That will take longer. But we hope it will percolate down, because once you have a certain mentality you generally don’t change unless the circumstances change, the ambiance changes. And in a certain sense not changing dramatically. That will I think take longer. But I’m positive that it will happen. We’re very, very hopeful. We’re rather confident that it will happen because the Pope is giving very effective leadership, and every now and then there is a clear message from him. But it will come about and suddenly we’ll realize, oh there has been a change! That’s how it will happen. It won’t come overnight, but at a certain point we’ll realize things have changed. He knows what he wants. And he’s happy. Certainly the indication I can see is this way; the relationship he has with the group and the joy he has in being with the group. He says he feels that it has helped him. Thank God. We do what we can. I don’t know how or why he chose us, but he’s happy. I was very surprised when I got a call from him. I said ‘why me? What have I done?’ I suppose he knows. I don’t know why. I did not know the Holy Father before, we’ve never been in any other committee before. Only at the conclave. I don’t even remember having chatted with him at the conclave, or before the conclave. After the conclave it was true that I was with him. It’s true that after I was with the Pope at Santa Marta for a few days. Then we were having meals together – breakfast, lunch and dinner for four or five days. That’s the time we came to know each other. So we were thrown together for about a week. It struck me that after his election I was at Santa Marta, because there were five or six cardinals. All the American cardinals were there, the European cardinals, all the ones from close by left and came back (for the installation). I stayed for the installation and then went back to India. And then you share, when you speak. He was very comfortable with us, very comfortable with me. But still, he had to make a choice.
Has he mentioned anything about when a visit to India might take place?
He’s very interested. We’re working it out, and I’m very hopeful. He would like to come and we would like to have him, and the government would like to have him. But now we must see his program, the government’s program, but I’m certain he will come. There are no details at all for the moment. I’m rather certainly positive that we will be able to get the Holy Father, he’s interested and I think he’s getting more interested. And the people will be excited…we are looking forward. In the beginning, as soon as he was elected, I asked him, ‘when are you coming to India?’ And he was sort of (disinterested), but gradually he began to like the idea. He’s never been to India before. As a Jesuit I think he was supposed to go to Japan, that’s what he was telling me. He’s going now to Bangladesh and Myanmar. It will be very sensitive. Bangladesh has it’s own problems, I believe they have elections next year, and Myanmar has problems to solve, also the refugee problem at the moment. Of late it is continuously on, I believe yesterday or this morning I saw it on CNN, and BBC is reporting on it. It’s an issue for the world. I’ve been there (Bangladesh) a few times. It’s a nice Church, concentrated mostly in Dhaka, a living faith. I’ve been to Myanmar also, I went as a papal legate there some years back, and I found the Church very vibrant. A simple faith, but I’m happy. I think it will mean a lot to the people. It will also strengthen the people. I think the Church is also very vibrant, it’s not have any specific difficulty, in my impression as a papal legate about two or three years back, but I was very impressed by the faith and the organization. It was vibrant. The Church was small, but strong and alive. It will make a difference for the Churches, and for the governments I expect.
Will you be there?
I plan to go to both places yes. In all of these trips in Asian I’ve come along: Sri Lanka, Korea, the Philippines. At the moment I’m president of the Asian Bishops Conference, so I suppose in that capacity I’ll have to go.
[…]
The pre-synodal declaration consists mainly of how the Church should change itself to accommodate young people, instead of youth preparing themselves to receive what they deserve. In other words, they want Holy Mother Church to become just another protestant body instead of the Body and Blood, soul and divinity of Our Lord. Rather than changing themselves to accept the teachings of the Church, they want to get whatever they want.
This is just another chance for Pope Francis to manipulate Church teaching. Of course the usual phrase will be used “Church teaching hasn’t changed, we have a just new understanding.” It is very distressing that scripture is not used as at least a stating point on why we believe what we believe. Catholicism has lost it’s place as the standard for moral teaching. The Church is supposed to change the world, not the world change the church. In stead of having to get through the eye of a needle to get to heaven we just need to pass through the arch in St. Louis. The 95 theses are now being nailed to the door of St. Peters. May God help us and may God do it soon.
Let’s pray that God will intervene soon and have mercy on all of us. We need His help.
The three men in the photo are post-Catholic pied pipers.
Divisive manipulators of a new cult of power and emptiness.
Why is anybody kowtowing to the opinions and catering to the whims of “youth?” Youth is a time in which one generally lacks experience and judgment and is more likely to be brainwashed by the culture around one, and since our current culture is pretty much a cesspit that is not a good thing.
Why are they claiming that 29-year-olds are “youth?”
What exactly do they mean by “different religious backgrounds?” Is this agenda being set with the contributions of Moslems, Hindus, Buddhists? Of Protestants? Why would the Church be interested in tailoring Her beliefs and practices to suit nonbelievers?
The description of what “youth” wants looks like a checklist of left-wing progressive political positions, not the goals of the Faith. Instead of “We want to learn how to love God and serve Him and be with Him in Heaven forever,” it’s more like “We care nothing about the hereafter, we just want power and license to do whatever we want. Also, save the whales! Look how virtuous we are!”
Leslie,
Why kowtow to the youth? This heartens back to the “60s generation” where no one over 30 was to be trusted and everything in the Great Western Intellectual Tradition was to be rejected. In other words, that generation would start over with themselves as the starting point.
It appears that the Pope is of this mindset. Unfortunately, this idea isn’t Catholic and doesn’t square either with Catholic Tradition or with the concept of the development of doctrine.
OMG…vocational discernment? He’s pitching vocational discernment to SJW’s? Just imagine how unbearable the Church will become when *they start becoming priests, nuns, and bishops.
Come quickly, Lord Jesus!
We are facing another phony Synod, like the two on the family that preceded it, that makes a mockery of Catholic belief and practice. Chris Ferrara has an article that goes into detail beyond this article that is well worth reading in conjunction with it: http://www.fatimaperspectives.com/fe/perspective1178.asp
A good prosecutor always knows the answer before he asks the defendant. Anyone with an ounce of experience with youth knows the vast majority know little of the faith and have adapted a secularized mindset. The Pontiff is prosecuting an agenda. Pope Francis The Great Reformer is not seeking to reform the Church by inculcating it in the Apostolic Tradition. He knows well they will say exactly what he wants, “The Church appears as too severe and associated with excessive moralism. We need a Church that is welcoming and merciful” (a Catholic youth). Matthew Schmitz senior editor of First Things hits it dead center, “We need once again to put theology before anthropology”. If the Church knows What it is Who it represents it knows Whose message it teaches. If the Paradigm Shift differs from that message but as claimed with continuity why does it appear to be searching for a message? As with Benedict’s manipulated letter of refusal duplicitous so is the Youth Synod. That message is already prepackaged.
All this reminds me of a scene from the Hungarian anti-communist satirical movie, “The Witness,” in which the protagonist, Comrade Pelikan, is a simple peasant who is being set up to be the crown witness against his old friend in a Stalinist-style show trial.
When he arrives to the courthouse, his secret police handler, Comrade Virag (which means “flower” in Hungarian) hastily hands him a bunch of papers and says, “Here’s your testimony that you need to read.” The peasant looks at it and with confusion and concern responds, “Excuse me Comrade Virag, but there’s a mistake — this is the verdict!”
Not too different from the way our “Synods” have been operating under our current Respected Supreme Leader.
Does anyone else find it amazing how Millennials and Boomers always seem to want the same things? The two most self-righteous and narcissistic generations are working together to reduce the Church to nothing more than Jesus flavored progressive social action group.
“YOUNG PEOPLE, THE FAITH AND VOCATIONAL DISCERNMENT” aka The Relativism Manifesto
Well, certainly, the church should be taking advice on doctrine and practice from the most poorly catechetized generation in history. (also the most arrogant, self absorbed and shallow) .. And with a pope at the head who doesn’t believe in hell… utopia is just around the corner!
Haven’t we had enough of this nonsense yet? Are there any Catholics in the vatican?
First, thanks for this article Mr. Ascik. Reading and reporting on this document must have been one of the more arduous acts of penance for Holy Week I’ve ever seen. But let’s be honest. Couldn’t we have just written this months ago when news of a “Youth Synod” first broke? Calls for changing in Church teaching (on sexual morality, of course), calls for a greater emphasis on SJW concerns such as the environment, immigration, etc., and all offered under the maddeningly monotonous appellation of ‘diversity’ from individuals whose shallow thought-processes give evidence of anything but.
I’m pretty sure we could go ahead and write the post-synodal exhortation right now. This would save us all the time and angst associated with a synod and just think of the reduction of carbon footprints if we don’t have to fly all the participants to Rome.
So basically it says exactly what the “progressives” and secularists wanted it to say and made sure it said. They want the Church to be less…less Catholic. And if we look elsewhere we see that such “reforms” have not led to renewal and greater numbers, but death. Francis, you are bringing us schism and ruin. Stop!
Let’s pray that something will happen to prevent this faith-wrecking synod from actually taking place.
Lord, have mercy on us.
The synod on the family that led to Amoris Laetitia was only the hors d’oeuvres. The main course of the Francis Papacy is coming up. Expect to see a full scale surrender/accommodation with 21st century secularism and acceptance of a life style that’s creating social road kill in immense quantity. In other words, everything wrong with the world will soon be sanctioned by the Church. The logic only makes sense in secular terms. The world is the way it is for a reason, and because today is different than yesterday, it must be desirable. What we will be junking is the Church of 2,000 years. More specifically we will be junking the Church of JPII (culture of death) and Benedict (tyranny of relativism), a Church that would be a beacon for the injured and a place to repair you life and soul. And to boot, Francis will do it badly. There will be no public opposition. Francis will try to peddle some form of Peronist economic justice. (Among other things, Francis has very limited gifts in the realm of analysis of the world as it exists. Argentina would not be the best place to get a good education on how the secular world should operate.) Wed yourself to the present and you will soon be a widower.
Pray that the bishops oppose this man and his supporters. He will be doing more damage to the Church than any Pope since the Reformation – maybe more.
How utterly predictable.
Until men (and not just clerics) take leadership in the patriarchate of Rome, the folly that posses as enlightened Christianity will continue to eat away at the Latin churches.
“…its overall tone is that youths themselves are both the source of and reference for the present and future” Let’s not “kid” ourselves. The heart of the progressive is ease and worldliness; it cares little about our kids unless it means to use them as a means to both (which is why the “kid” at Providence College got skewered for sacrifice and holiness). Empowerment of youth and women is ultimately progressive (worldly) empowerment. One more thing to never forget: the progressive is relentless – like a squirrel at a bird feeder – he will never rest in pillaging. Righteous worldliness drives him and when the kids no longer suit him, he will pillage something else and the kids will become his scapegoats.
It’s sad that Evangelicals, and Mormons seem to have a better grasp and defense of Christianity than the current Pope and his administration in the Vatican, and elsewhere in the Catholic Church. I guess Marxism and Liberation Theology, not to mention Moral Relativism, dominate the current Vatican, and will guide the Catholic Church into a new Catholic reality. Little wonder that many are leaving the Catholic Church for other Christian denominations, or just giving up on religion altogether…If “anything goes”, then why bother?
I wonder if more plaster will be falling…
May God have mercy on His suffering Church. Why would the Vatican ‘invite’ 300 kids from around the World to prepare a Sin-nod? It is a blatant set up job – so clumsy in its transparency as to be laughable – except the foibles of these misguided clerics are no laughing matter. We faithful in the pews will have to preserve and persevere. Shall we find any defenders of the faith among our bishops?
Welcome to the postmodern culture of amnesia…
Not so long ago, Cardinal Donald Wuerl got the big picture just about right, in Rome when he opened the Year of Faith in October 2012: “This current situation is rooted in the upheavals of the 1970s and 80s, decades in which there was manifest poor catechesis or miscatechesis at so many levels of education . . .It is as if a tsunami of secular influence has swept across the cultural landscape, taking with it such societal markers as marriage, family, the concept of the common good and objective right and wrong.”
With the Faith as a starting point, the Synod final report might (!!!)still recover enough to say something like the following:
That, yes, what seems an “unreachable standard” of Christianity is still possible with the elevating power of supernatural grace, and the interior life,
That, yes, the call for communities that “empower” with a “sense of identity and belonging” is basic, but also risks conflating power with the depth of gifted and fully human belonging; (“more original to us than our solitude;” Giussani, The Religious Sense),
That, yes, for the laity to be missionary means to be partly a “presence within the Church” but mostly a leaven in the world; (“Christianity was spread. . . by the spectacle of Christian morals…;” Chautard, The Soul of the Apostolate),
That alleged “taboos—pre-fabricated, severe and morally excessive” are actually truths about the very nature of the human person; (and are already given the requested “better explanation” in Veritatis Splendor and the Theology of the Body)”,
That, yes, the youth can be met “where they are,” but this does not mean that the Christ within gives us a pass for having it both ways; (even euthanasia is rationalized as a statutory exemption to civil laws against homicide),
That, yes, the Church is relevant to the world, but the ordained Church hierarchy does not claim license for mission-creep to pronounce concrete solutions for the “large social issues;” (leavening the world with both justice and truth is the vocation and expertise of a laity with well-formed consciences),
That rather than “false images of Jesus,” the center of the assembled Church—distinctly more than a sola Scriptura suburban “community”—is the concrete fact of Christ in history, fully God and fully Man, and now in the Eucharist (the Real Presence entirely “transparent” sacramentally).
The only thing new under the sun–the only real “paradigm shift”–is personal conversion.
This Youth Synod is a joke and should be cancelled, and replaced with a march for penance and reparation.