Vatican City, Oct 23, 2023 / 13:00 pm (CNA).
As the Synod on Synodality in Rome launches into its final week with a changed calendar, all eyes are on the anticipated Letter to the People of God, expected on Saturday evening.
The tradition of the Synod writing such a letter — or producing a similar document or message to the faithful — is far from new. However, the document this year aims for a fresh twist, at least in how it is brought about: Unlike the summary document slated for approval at the end of the Synod, this missive serves as a compass, pointing the way for the synodal journey.
As Paolo Ruffini, prefect of the Dicastery of Communication, puts it, if the summary is “transitional,” the letter should illustrate the desired synodal trajectory, encompassing major topics like peace, migration, and alignment with the pope and papal magisterium, discussed vehemently in the last week of discussions.
Jesuit Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, the Synod’s general relator, already outlined a “road map” for the Synod’s next phase in his opening speech. Various proposals are to be gathered, though it’s unclear if new continental or other local stages will follow.
The will of the General Secretariat of the Synod seems to be to have a solid and pervasive presence in the processes. Therefore, everything will depend on what the Secretariat requests from the regional and continental bodies.
This week’s agenda
Discussions will commence in the smaller circles on Oct. 23, after Mass and theological reflection. After a review and vote on the letter, a reflective break follows until Oct. 24, with the summary report commission meeting in the afternoon. On Oct. 25, the General Congregation meets to review the summary report outline delivered by the general rapporteur, followed by open discourse in the afternoon and a rosary in the Vatican Gardens.
Amendments to the synthesis report are deliberated on Oct. 26 in smaller circles, and the next synodal process phase is discussed in the General Congregation in the afternoon. Following a break on Oct. 27, the document is reviewed in the hall on Oct. 28, morning and afternoon, prior to approval, concluding with the Te Deum.
Theological deliberations
As the Synod nears conclusion, the pope’s call for confidentiality keeps debates largely internal, yet lacking practical solutions to vital issues like dwindling vocations or faltering faith, even in traditionally Catholic nations. The Synod, on Oct. 20, hosted the second of two events at St. Peter’s Basilica, titled “Without Prejudice to the Primacy of the Chair of Peter: The Exercise of the Petrine Ministry in a Synodal Church,” exploring the balance between papal primacy and Church reform in a synodal context.
Moderated by Father Dario Vitali and featuring discussions by theologians including Father Leonardo Pelonara and Father Luca Massari, the event dissected the relationship between primacy, collegiality and potential dissent towards papal decisions. The discourse also touched on Pope Francis’ endeavor to bolster episcopal conferences and claimed that a papal documents’ reception isn’t merely passive but a call for the laity to engage and discern, with bishops overseeing the process to avoid division.
Rosalba Manes, a New Testament professor, delved into the Gospel of John’s Last Supper narrative, emphasizing the servitude and leadership lessons it holds for modern-day apostles, urging them to emulate Jesus and Peter’s examples of selflessness and protection towards others.
Setting the stage for the week — and the coming year
The theme of papal primacy will undoubtedly be a Synod discussion staple, and will influence the final document. The debate oscillates between those who would like to change the structures of the Church — applying a variety of ideas — and those advocating for the pope’s central role.
Regardless of where the compass needle points, this Synod session will undoubtedly set the stage for 2024’s gathering.
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People who are committed to obeying Christ are not going to pay deference to apostate bureaucrats like “His Eminence” Hollerich etc etc etc.
This was NOT a Synod and any letter is, for me, DOA.
Yea verily, the prophet Aesop teacheth that “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.”
But, Ruffini would have us believe the reverse, with the speculative bird in the bush actually being the dove of Noah! And, therefore, that the inexhaustive-but-definitive Deposit of Faith can be walked off the plank from the barque of Peter…as in synodally “walking together.”
Further, a non-manipulative theme would not impose a “balance between papal primacy and Church reform in a synodal context,” butt rather the balance between the “hierarchical communion” (Lumen Gentium: bishops together with papal primacy) and Church reform in either “synods of bishops” or lay-consulting town-hall meetings, or both…
Butt, not both voting together as a hybrid/mongrel fait accompli. The barbarians are inside the walls–the German “non-synod” model has been imported into the worldwide “synod” in Rome.
The Departed. Reading through this article now for the second time I still cannot grasp a comprehensive idea of what the agenda, theological deliberations are about. Read an article by Robert Royal that expresses similar. “We’ve been told that the Synod on Synodality is not about theology. Or doctrine. Not about the media’s favorite issues: LGBT, women’s ordination, married priests. Nor is it intended to subvert or replace the hierarchical nature of the Church or to democratize the decision-making process. The Synod on Synodality is – at least this year – about discerning what synodality is” (Royal There’s Got to Be a Better Way TCT). Then the converse punchline, a participating bishop said ‘we’ve got to depart from Apostolic Tradition’. As have numbers of other bishops.
At the bottom of this article a Prof Rosalba Manes says the Apostles exhibited selflessness and protection towards others. A sure change from proclaiming Christ for the salvation of souls. Repentance a forgotten word in a sea of words, all adrift, the zigzagging on papal authority blessed by a pontiff who anomalously retains a steel grip.
The Departed the reader may know is the title of an intricate exchange of criminal activity and police investigation, most of the participants intertwined in identity fabrication, most ending up departing this world. The analogy is to the Synod’s pretentious orthodoxy, secrecy, duplicity, bishops, ordained to defend Apostolic tradition exclaiming, We’ve got to depart from Apostolic tradition [reported by Synod observer Robert Royal].
Royal muses what is it all about. A lack of coherency. However, that’s what it’s all about, keeping everyone off guard, reducing many to resort to accusations of idiocy. To the contrary, if it may be so proposed, there is an agenda, a design revealed in key statements, assignments, formulated in the bowels of Hell to depart from Apostolic tradition. Astonishingly apparent in bishops who have come to so radical a conclusion after these past years of constant mental moral browbeating.
Shouldn’t it be called a slap in the face to the People of God and spitting in the Face of God?