Pope Francis ends synod, calls final document ‘work of the Holy Spirit’

Vatican City, Oct 28, 2018 / 11:00 am (CNA).- Pope Francis closed the 2018 Synod of Bishops Oct. 27, calling the meeting’s final document the work of the Holy Spirit.

 

The 167 paragraph text on young people, the faith, and vocational discernment was voted on paragraph by paragraph Saturday, following nearly a month of discussion on the topic.

 

“We have made the document, we have studied it, we have approved it. Now the Holy Spirit gives us the document to work in our heart,” Pope Francis told the 250 bishops, nuns, and young people in synod hall at the conclusion of voting.

The final document of the fifteenth ordinary synod touches on controversial topics, such as homosexuality and the concept of “synodality.”

 

“It was Spirit to work here,” Francis said.

 

Two hundred forty-nine bishops voted in two sessions, passing the the synod document in its entirety Oct. 27.

 

The Synod “is a protected space for the Holy Spirit to work,” the pope said, reminding the participants that “the Synod is not a parliament.”

 

“It is a difficult time,” continued Pope Francis. “Constant accusations dirty the Church.”

 

“Now is the time to defend Mother church from the great accuser with prayer and penance,” said Pope Francis, and reiterated his call for Catholics to pray the Rosary and pray to St. Michael the Archangel.


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3 Comments

  1. (T)his final document have nothing to do with the Holy Spirit.
    If whole world says so, I am sure, it is not!

    “There is a kind of papalotry going around. It acts as if no matter what comes out of Rome, it must have been inspired by the Holy Ghost. This line of thinking holds, for example, that if Vatican II was called, it means that the Holy Ghost wanted to call it. But this is not necessarily the case. Convoking Vatican II was a personal decision of John XXIII. He may have thought god was telling him to call it, but who knows? He has no special charism that guarantees he would recognize such a decision as coming from the Holy Ghost with theological certitude.

    We can say that the Pope has the power to call a council. We can say that the authorities in the Church can call upon the Holy Ghost to guarantee, in a very narrow set of cases, that what comes from this council is de fide (And nothing in Vatican II was pronounced de fide, Ed.)

    The glory of the Church is that it has supernatural help to define Truth. It has supernatural help to guarantee that its sacraments are efficacious and so on. But who said that the decision to call the council (or synod) was protected by the Holy Ghost?” – http://salbert.tripod.com/Papalotry.htm

  2. At best, this whole extravaganza was a complete and utter waste of time, money and energy. May the final document and everything else about this ridiculous papacy be forgotten soon.

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