Vatican’s Synod on Synodality organizers say synod is ‘fruit’ of Second Vatican Council

AC Wimmer   By AC Wimmer for CNA

 

The opening of the Synod for the Family at the Vatican on Oct. 5, 2015. / Vatican Media.

CNA Newsroom, Oct 10, 2022 / 05:20 am (CNA).

In a message marking the 60th anniversary of the opening of Vatican II, the organizers of the Synod on Synodality called the Synod of Bishops a “fruit” of the council.

Quoting Pope Francis, the synod’s general secretariat on Monday said the synod was “indeed one of [the Council’s] most precious legacies.”

“The purpose of the synod was and remains to prolong, in the life and mission of the Church, the spirit of the Second Vatican Council,” the message said.

“The concept of ‘synodality’ is found throughout the council, even though this term (only recently coined) is not found expressly in the documents of the ecumenical assembly.”

In March 2018, the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith’s International Theological Commission produced a document on the theological roots of synodality in the Church: “Synodality in the Life and Mission of the Church.”

The CDF document noted that in the history of the Church, synods and councils were nearly interchangeable terms for formal ecclesiastical assemblies.

It said that the more modern view of a synod as something distinct from a council does not go back even as far as Vatican II, and that its development was accompanied by the neologism of “synodality.”

Speaking of the Church as “synodal” by its nature is something novel, the commission said, and required “careful theological clarification.”

The Vatican’s message on Monday said the “synodal process currently underway is also within the Council’s wake.”

In October 2021, the Catholic Church began the first phase of a global two-year synodal process that will culminate in a meeting of the Synod of Bishops in Rome in 2023.

Cardinal Mario Grech, the secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, is the meeting’s chief organizer.

The Maltese cardinal said the question that the Synod on Synodality was trying to answer is “what is the type of Church that the Holy Spirit is enlightening us to have for today?”

The Oct. 10 message concluded with the words of Pope Benedict XVI that the “synodal dimension is constitutive of the Church: it consists of a coming together of every people and culture in order that they become one in Christ and walk together, following him, who said: ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life.’”


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9 Comments

  1. Reference is made to the 2018 statement by the International Theological Commission (ITC), and then we read further: “Speaking of the Church as ‘synodal’ by its nature is something novel, the commission said, and required “careful theological clarification.”

    As for “theological clarification,” this from the ITC:

    “…It is essential that, taken as a whole, the participants give a meaningful and balanced image of the local Church, reflecting different vocations, ministries, charisms, competencies, social status and geographical origin. The bishop, the successor of the apostles [!] and shepherd of his flock who convokes and presides over the local Church synod, is called to exercise there the ministry of unity and leadership with the authority which belongs to him” (n. 79).

    “…called to exercise…the authority which belongs to him?”

    Hmm, forgot about that. The synodal Vademecum casts bishops “primarily as facilitators” and yet warns not to fall for “passing opinions”–a feeble allusion, perhaps, to the eclipsed Deposit of Faith versus the Zeitgeist?

    So now, the self-credentialed sociologist-scientist (!), and relator-general of the 2023 Synod on Synodality, Cardinal Hollerich, can clarify (!), all by himself his superior wisdom: “I believe that the sociological-scientific foundation of this teaching [on sexual morality] is no longer true [….] I think it’s time we make a fundamental revision of the doctrine” https://www.aol.com/news/liberal-cardinal-calls-revised-catholic-135429645-181222377.html

    The “synodal process […] within the Council’s wake.” Or is it the secular world’s “woke?” So, yes, to a smoother and synodal Church fabric of consultation, and yes to the concluding remark: Jesus Christ as “the way, and the truth, and the life.”

    Butt, first, “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever” (Heb 13:8). Yes? Hopefully the lights go on before Hollerich’s synodal synthesis! in 2023: You just can’t put lipstick on that pig.

  2. A “synod of the whole Church” is not in any of her sources. If they mean to call another Council they haven’t said it nor have they identified what it is.

    VATICAN II mentions synods in the context of the ordinary practice of the Church over many centuries -nothing more. Anything else would be over-reaching.

    If you set up something as “synod” that’s not really what the Church has lived, everything in it is going to be skewed, misshapen and out of proportion.

    Quoting Benedict XVI or anyone else will be out of context. If it is something entirely new you should just say that and find a name for it without trying to automatically legitimize it using the word “synod”.

    Neither the first Mass -the Last Supper- nor the ordinary Mass is a synod. Just because the word “synod” has a relation with “Church” it it doesn’t mean you can use it.

    Perhaps what the Pope has in mind is a gathering alike to the Lord giving the Sermon on the Mount; with the Pope teaching how the Beatitudes are to be lived today?

    And the justification would be that “VATICAN II wanted to avoid ‘denunciations’ while maintaining a ‘pastoral’ bearing”? Even that stretches VATICAN II though.

    In some ways they are being very candid yes -while unctioning a collective passivity, which yet doesn’t make up for what is lacking. But it is so “developmental” piecemeal and adapting that it’s not possible to know what to put where.

    Apparently the Holy Spirit is already sanctioning it (and the use of “synod”), since, as they are saying, He is showing His intent what He wants for the whole Church, apart from VATICAN II but envisaged in VATICAN II.

    Well, well, well, what do they have there.

  3. “The [2018] CDF document said the more modern view of a synod [is] that its development was accompanied by the neologism of synodality”. A perfect tautology, open to invention.
    Pope Benedict XVI is quoted in the Oct 10 message, that the “synodal dimension is constitutive of the Church: it consists of a coming together of every people and culture in order that they become one in Christ and walk together, following him, who said: I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (Benedict in Angelus 5 Oct 2008). Although Benedict, in this documented 2008 Angelus clearly articulates the continuity of doctrine between pontiff and bishops. “The purposes of the Synod of Bishops, [is] to promote a closer union and greater collaboration between the Supreme Pontiff and the Bishops worldwide, to provide accurate and direct information concerning the Church’s circumstances and problems, to facilitate agreement on matters of doctrine and pastoral action” (Benedict in Angelus 5 Oct 2008).
    There isn’t any semblance in what Benedict said then, and what is proposed now by Cardinals Grech, Hollerich within the Synod on Synodality.

    • Grech ought to be prosecuted for micro-aggression–this homophobic talk about “fruits” of the Council. You just can’t get good help these days.

    • Gilberta thank you. If I was instead structuring a study of it to make it in book form, I’d try to be more factual as you see Fr. Morello doing on this page. So much of that kind of background information escapes me though; and it is hard-going to bring it together at any given point in time, when the work for it, on my part, is still not done! You see.

      Some areas are non-factual, eg., the Holy Father warns against Pelagianism /neo-Pelagianism; but, What is Fr. James Martin preaching in the name of the faith?

      Some things have become so circulated we can’t even remember who first announced it or if Pope Francis ever conditioned it. As we are urged to “move forward” we can’t tell if Pope Francis will back it.

      And then they have floated strange ideas, like: being pro-life (as always understood) means you are insensitive to “other life issues”, as if there is some a priori implacable evil connection or division between such “two sections” in a pro-life person, or proven terrible neglectful attitudes in care the elderly, by pro-lifers.

    • I pray for Fr. Benedict and I hope you will not leave him out of your own prayers.

      Cardinal Muller has been lucid and very good on instruction; and he lends his stability.

      The resolution of the “progressives/conservatism” dichotomy is not the purpose of VATICAN II and I believe that the “stand-off” is all too consuming for some. The Holy Father seems to have tried to “move forward” from it, or, tried to get other past it, by introducing a tertium quid; but, yet, by hitting many wrong notes together.

      The charity that is aimed for in the Council is for witness that expresses unity of doctrine and discipline. Thus, separating doctrine and discipline is contrary to faith and reason and the Council and elicits lack of depth. I’m trying to be non-abrasive.

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