By 
VATICAN CITY — The General Secretariat of the Synod has published a new document to guide the “path of implementation of the Synod” through an ecclesial assembly in October 2028 at the Vatican.
The 18-page document, titled “The Path of Implementation of the Synod: Towards the Assemblies 2027–2028 — Stages, Criteria, and Tools for Preparation,” establishes a four-stage process and a common method for local Churches, episcopal conferences, and continental bodies.
The new text follows a letter sent last year to bishops, eparchs, patriarchs, and major archbishops of the Eastern Catholic Churches defining the process of accompaniment in the implementation phase of the Synod on Synodality, which concluded in 2024 after a three-year process.
The Synod’s implementation path will unfold in four progressive stages: Recollecting, in the first half of 2027; Interpreting, in the second half of 2027; Orienting, in the first four months of 2028; and Celebrating, in October 2028.
Each stage will culminate in an assembly and the drafting of materials meant to feed ecclesial discernment ahead of the final assembly.
According to the document, the unity of the process will be guided by a common question at every level: “In light of the journey undertaken after the conclusion of the 2021–2024 Synod, and with a view to offering its fruits as a gift to the other Churches and to the Holy Father: What concrete form of a missionary synodal Church, and what new paths of synodality, are emerging in your community?”
The document says the process is not meant to repeat the consultation stage of the Synod but to help the Churches learn from what has already been lived, recognize fruits and difficulties, recalibrate priorities and processes “in the light of careful discernment,” strengthen co-responsibility, and foster an “authentic exchange of gifts among the Churches.”
The Synod office also stresses that the implementation phase “does not introduce additional tasks alongside the ordinary life of communities; rather, it orients and renews that life from within.”
Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary-general of the Synod, said the proposal should be understood as a time of ecclesial discernment rather than as another administrative burden.
“What we are proposing to the local Churches,” Grech said, “is not an additional task but rather a time of shared discernment and thanksgiving in which to reread together what the Spirit is causing to grow in the Church and to recognize the steps we are called to take.”
“The assemblies do not coincide with a sociological consultation or a deliberative process, nor are they a technical assessment,” he continued. “Rather, they are a profound ecclesial and spiritual experience of discernment: a moment of synthesis and renewed impetus for the journey, so that the exchange of gifts among the Churches may become a concrete experience and synodality may increasingly take shape as the ordinary style of ecclesial life at the service of mission.”
Where this has not already been done, the document says it is “essential to reactivate and support diocesan, national, and continental synodal teams,” whose composition is to be communicated to the General Secretariat of the Synod.
The document calls for assemblies with broad participation, including men and women of different generations, priests, deacons, consecrated men and women, members of movements and associations, and faithful not belonging to organized structures. It also asks for attention to the presence of “persons living in situations of fragility or marginality.”
The text adds that it is important “to value voices not directly traceable to ecclesial structures” and, where appropriate, to provide for the participation of representatives of other Churches and Christian communions or of other religions.
At the diocesan and eparchial level, each local Church will prepare a narrative report before its assembly and a letter to other local Churches during the assembly. National or regional assemblies will prepare a theological-pastoral report and a letter to other Churches.
Continental assemblies will prepare a “perspective report” to help shape the Instrumentum Laboris, the working document for the 2028 meetings at the Vatican.
All materials must be sent to the General Secretariat of the Synod by specific deadlines: June 30, 2027, for the local stage; Dec. 31, 2027, for the national or regional stage; and April 30, 2028, for the continental stage.
The document proposes conversation in the Spirit as the privileged method for community discernment while allowing adaptations for the needs of each context.
The implementation phase began after Pope Francis received the Synod’s Final Document in 2024. The new stage, according to the document, was “subsequently confirmed and promoted by Pope Leo XIV” with the aim of helping synodality become an ordinary style of ecclesial life at the service of mission.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
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I’m not able to formulate a response charitable enough to pass moderation.
Good comment Lucy. I’m not so good. Rome needs to stop wasting money, who knows how much, millions probably, on this synod. Let the Bishops and Priests do what they were called to do, save souls and get out of there way.
Pope Leo is looking more like Francis 2.0, let us pray for our Pope and all the Bishops and Priests that the Holy Spirit will help them save souls.
Amen
Bishop Fulton Sheen warned about the coming false church.
Synod-babble.
Utter rubbish.
Synods are a symptom of a Church searching for relevance. Stop it! The only relevance is life in God through the Person of Jesus Christ.
Please stop burdening God’s people with this synodal inanity. This is all too mindful of those “t-groups” back in the 60’s.
Right on target, deacon
For those don’t recall the “t-groups” of the 1960’s, here’s what Google says:
“T-groups (training groups) in the 1960s were experiential learning workshops designed to increase self-awareness and improve interpersonal communication skills. Developed by the National Training Laboratories (NTL), these groups became a major phenomenon in the 1960s, with over 20,000 people attending by 1966.Key aspects of 1960s T-groups:Structure: They were small, unstructured groups (10-14 participants) that focused on the “here and now”—the immediate feelings, reactions, and behaviors of members.
The Process: Without a pre-set agenda, the group relied on a passive facilitator to guide participants in analyzing their interactions, sharing raw feedback, and establishing deep emotional trust.
Purpose: They were heavily utilized in management development to help executives improve communication and emotional intelligence.Cultural Context: T-groups were often associated with the human potential movement and were championed by figures like Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers.
Criticism: They faced scrutiny, with some viewing them as a method of breaking down individual resistance or as “brainwashing,” as depicted in the 1956 book The Organization Man.”
The document is very cunning and diabolical.
Cunning because most people, if they try to read it, will think “this incomprehensible language again, this “synodality” again –we better have a nap, wake us up when it is over”.
I have written many times that both PF and PL use a postmodern technique of a collage; its true meaning can be seen only if one steps back and contemplates the whole picture. It takes much effort to do so because the collage is contrary to a normal human psyche (and to our faith) but it is possible with a prayer.
I read the document in its entirety. It is multilayered. The first layer: “the AI speaking”. The AI can speak about the Gospels and Christianity but its lacks a personal touch, a soul. The result is an empty shell – the words look proper on the surface but it lacks both human and divine touch. An approximation: the Devil tempting Jesus in the desert quoting the Scripture – however, the Devil there is more personal than the “Toward the Assemblies” document.
The second layer: all those beads of words which are calling for “recollecting – interpreting – orienting – celebrating” have no clearly stated purpose. That made me recall an event during the local “Synod of Synodality” sessions: the facilitator was bubbling with an excitement about “the journey”, other people look equally elated and bubbled in response as needed – until I “rudely” uninterrupted him and asked “What is the purpose of the journey? Where are we going?” He stopped and had a look of someone who was shaken out of an induced trance. He could say absolutely nothing. Apparently, I shook him out of the script via a direct question. Hence a conclusion: common sense and clear questions have the power to break this “synodal trance state”.
The third layer: the most cunning part that is the most difficult to grasp, namely a juxtaposition of “the AI-like text” and the quotes from the Scriptures which achieves a double result:
1) it provides “a respected basis” for the process proclaimed in the document;
2) that “Scriptural basis” together with the text of the document, especially with its sequence, create a covert blasphemy bordering on idiocy (which fogs the blasphemy), the full scale of which one can appreciate only via stepping back and contemplating the whole thing.
An example: the document starts with reference, of how Jesus Christ sent His disciples to proclaim the Gospel and to cure and to banish demons. The document makes a parallel: apparently, the disciples returned and “recollected the events” hence “the recollection” is also the stage of our “implementation”. Is it true? – Only on the surface of the event, on the level “sent – did – returned” i.e. of a zomby. Insert the content and compare: the disciples did the will of Christ, not their own; they proclaimed the Kingdom of God “repent and believe in Gospel” – and “Synod of Synodality” does exactly the opposite: no repentance, no sin, no doing the will of God. It is idiotic with a touch of the AI – and a covert blasphemy as result, the blasphemy of emptying the Gospels from their content.
This technique, of “reinterpreting” the Gospels = emptying it achieves an effect of an including the Gospels into the postmodern collage hence we have two Gospels now: one, the true one, of Christ, as a reference in the hypertext only and another is its “reinterpretation” which is acting, being ever-created as “needed”.
Closer to the end, it became clear that “Toward the Assemblies” outlines the parallel Apocalypses with parallel phenomena which swaps, for example, the New Jerusalem city coming from heaven, the Bride of the Lamb with the celebrating people on earth, “the liturgies, in particular, will be called to make tangible what it means to be a missionary synodal Church”. Or “the guided by the process of discernment of the themes by the local Churches which then send its fruit to the Holy Father” is a clear (reversed) parallel “Christ dictating messages to the seven Churches”.
Finally, there is unmistakable revelation (about itself) in the document’s conclusion: “The contributions thus gathered will be offered to the Holy Father as the fruit of the process of discernment.” This is a “reinterpretation” of Christ’s offering of His Sacrifice to God the Father = of the whole Salvation = of God.
But this will be evident only to those who “bother” to read the document.
The document does not completely hide the truth:
“recollecting” = recollecting superficial lines, like “they went to a village”, without a content
“interpreting = putting new, our own meaning into the empty shell of the Gospel
“orienting” = changing our vector, from God to ourselves
“celebrating” = celebrating the peace which comes only with abolition of a sense of sin = conscience.
Anna,
About purpose or teleology, and from your analysis…are we not struck by the congruence between synodality’s endless journey and the journeying frustration of the homosexual act? To what extent would a self-referentially closed Synod-on-Synodality process (say what?) resemble Jimmy Martin’s hamster-wheel LGBTQ-lifestyle? A sort of linguistic photo-op on Vatican letterhead!
Perhaps the Synodal Orifice can briefly clarify, with their own deeper anal-ysis, in a coupling of a few non-circular sentences? As in–not simply marching in place year after year. Teleology, what’s that?
(Wikipedia: “Teleology [from τέλος, telos, ‘end’, ‘aim’, or ‘goal’, and λόγος, logos, ‘explanation’ or ‘reason’ or finality is a philosophical approach to discussing causality, which explains causes in terms of ends, purposes, or goals.]”)
What a brilliant response. I have had a similar experiencewhen I asked “what do you mean” in response to the ‘babble’ language and was immediately shut down as there was no prepared answer.
Thank you so much for this excellent analysis, Anne, and for an earlier post calling attention and citing some of the sexual poetry of Cardinal Fernandez. The situation at the very top of the CC recalls the still undisclosed Third Secret of Fatima (The disclosure in 2000 by the Vatican hides it). Imagine. As a priest in his thirties in Argentina Fernandez wrote those sexual poems, likely homosexual ones. Yet he was eventually promoted to Cardinal and to a very important Vatican position by his fellow Argentinian Pope Francis. CWR has an excellent article on his poems at
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2023/08/09/the-erotic-poems-of-archbishop-victor-manuel-fernandez-audience-context-commentary/
The Erotic Poems of Abp Fernández: Audience, Context, Commentary
For the still undisclosed Third Secret, see the Fatima Center:
THE FATIMA CENTER
https://fatima.org/suppression-of-the-third-secret/
Suppression of the Third Secret
And the analogous message of Our Lady of Akita:
https://www.marianland.com/third-secret-not-revealed.html
Excellent analysis Anna.
But the stakes are so high these days you need never hesitate with bluntness. “A covert blasphemy bordering on idiocy” is never crude but attention getting to the droves of rapidly falling away Catholics, who need to be slapped in their ideological face, a redirect for sobriety and peace of soul. Ordering around the Holy Spirit is always blasphemy. And insisting that God so deprived the faithful of the past of adaquate “interpretations” is always idiotic.
Synodaling is amazingly ridiculous. All this to avoid repentance and justify sin in practice. Oy veh.
“Anyone who is so “progressive” that he does not remain rooted in the teaching of Christ does not possess God, while anyone who remains rooted in the teaching possesses both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you who does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house; do not even greet him, for whoever greets him shares in the evil he does.” (2 John)
Synodaling is a fad, destined to fade into obscurity.
Synodaling is silly putty, a flash mob that looks like planking after a day.
Synodaling is wearing a mood ring and collecting pet rocks.
Great quote GF.
Sincerely hope you are right about Synodaling…
My take is that Synodaling is a means to an end… And that end is overturning 2000 years of teaching on Faith and Morals using the leverage of the Catholic Papacy.
Otherwise put, Synodaling is the work of the devil turning the Divine Institution against herself – the final fruit of the “spirit” of Vatican II.
“The document proposes conversation in the Spirit…”
Holy Cow!
The first Pentecost gave birth to the church. The Synod seems intent on delivering a pentecostal blast of hot air to set the church-world ablaze in a death throe of bored horror. I’m reminded of those pictures of the devil we’ve all seen.
Surely we can discern (!) that Grech use the terms “synod” and “assembly” too interchangeably. The so-called Synod on Synodality was either a blunder or a subterfuge imported from der Synodal Weg. A lay/clerical “ecclesial assembly” is not in any sense a Christ-commissioned and accountable “synod [of bishops]” within the Apostolic Succession.”
Three Comments and a Summary:
FIRST, the resurrected exercise would restore the kind of clarity and authenticity that some guy named Ratzinger/Benedict (remember him?) earlier had in mind when he addressed the meaning of legitimate “ecclesial assemblies”—as distinct from synods of bishops (and even distinct from the promised annual Consistories of Cardinals).
SECOND, about Ratzinger/Benedict: About the “Ecclesial Assembly” of 2028 (no longer a so-called synod?)—decades ago, Benedict XVI used this term when he reflected on the loss of the “ecclesial assembly”—or communio—at the time of Trent. The restoration of clear doctrine, and of ordained bishops and priests as more than bottoms-up “cult-ministers” (his words), but as bearers of sacramentality through Holy Orders, also led to an unfortunate separation of the laity from the clergy—the erosion of “communio”—”the problem of the laity, which arose at this time and still haunts us today” (“Successio Apostolica,” as Chapter 2 in Ratzinger, “Principles of Catholic Theology,” Ignatius, 1982/Ignatius 1987).
The “original meaning of the word ‘ecclesia’—that is, not selectively heard (or herded, or only walking together?), but sacramentally and communally really ‘coming together’ within the Church as a “hierarchical communion” (Lumen Gentium, Ch. 3 with the inseparable Prefatory Note), that is, both charismatic and institutional.
THIRD, about discerning whether to even remember the Council as apart from and above pseudo-synods, there’s this:
“…as the Council affirms ‘the task of authentically interpreting the word of God, whether in its written form or in that of Tradition, has been entrusted only to those charged with the Church’s living Magisterium [!], whose authorship is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ [italics],(Veritatis Splendor n. 27, citing Dei Verbum, n. 10).”
SUMMARY: to the business-as-usual Cardinal Grech: Do the Church and Leo XIV a favor—since the pope has already explained to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith that he expects clarity rather than past ambiguity: link “Catholic World Report Leo urges doctrine office to give clear guidance in face of new challenges.”
The non-German 99% who did not even participate in the roundtable town-hall meetings (!) might be more reassured if the term “synod” is totally dropped (hello, is anybody listening?) during and even prior to the “ecclesial assembly of 2028”; and, if falsely-entangled moral clarities are exorcised from further verbiage.
With Anna, now also having read the document, I find that it includes the word “synod” 79 times (still not adequate for der Synodal Weg) whilst noticing Jesus Christ NOT EVEN ONCE (“Christian” is conceded 4 times but only as an adjective…).
In 1983, following the disastrous national 1976 Call to Action exercise (bottoms-up synodality, literally), a similar text was floated in front of the local archdiocesan school board and, like Anna, one member (an acquaintance) asked theologically “what the hell is going on here?” or words to that effect. The board members insisted on reading that entire 11-page single-spaced word salad prior to voting on it.
The words and Word “Jesus Christ” were totally absent. The local version of Cardinal Grech never returned. Today, the thoroughly implied—but this time not stated—nemesis in the current “Path to Implementation” was termed “heteronymously imposed,” referring to both the real Catholic Church’s ecclesial and moral clarities.
So, about the monotonous Grech crusade, or is it charade…been there, done that.
My confidence is that Pope Leo XIV clearly sees through what Pope Paul VI termed “the smoke of Satan,” and has chosen the strategy of not triggering a nuclear meltdown through an abrupt and subtractive housecleaning, but by instead is adding new points of light and unity, such as the annual Consistory of Cardinals (next one next month in June). And, this year, by accepting a host of routine retirement letters of resignation. And, by listening to voices in addition to the echo chamber of yesteryear.
The problem is the dichotomy between “religion” and “implementation”.
Simply put, one implements a business plan…
Implementation??? I don’t think you grasp what a difficult task it is for the synodalists having to dictate marching orders to the Holy Spirit Who has shown signs of stubbornly refusing to obey.
Recollecting, Interpreting, Orienting, and Celebrating. A spiritual experience of discernment.
A realization of the German Synodaler Weg template as detailed by Peter Beaulieu. Diabolically cunning as assessed by Anna. From this writer’s perspective, a reconstitution of the Church from the ground up. A peoples’ democratic institution. Congregationalist in essence.
Additionally, in the West with pastors stretched to their limits with thin and widespread congregations I highly doubt the practicality of this proposal. Where you have much larger congregations in Africa and disparate areas in Asia, organization of such a project seems destined for chaos. Final assessment. A first step in dissolution of the Church as a universal body.
As my good friend Bugs would say, “What a bunch of maroons!”
🤣🤣
I thought that was Ralph Krandem. Or was it Ed Norton?
As a fan of the Pottsville Maroons, the NFL team that had its championship stolen, Bugs needs a new insult.
Yes, Pottsville a small town based on anthracite coal and the Reading Company had an NFL team.
With all of the nonsense emanating from Rome and Germany, I take my comfort in the thoughtful responses posted here. I see that common sense, reason, and truth still exist within our Church outside of Rome. Reminds me of what Fulton Sheen said in 1972. To wit: “Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, and the ears to save the Church. Your mission is the see that your priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops, and your religious act like religious.” Let us continue to be about it!
All due respect to +Sheen, it’s Jesus who will save His Church, and He’ll use whoever He can get. I expect that to include bishops, priests, religious, and laity.
Yes Amanda, an important point.
But it is sad to witness a lack of personal soul searching that exists among the ordained, whose routines and boredom tend to isolate them from the daily reality of venial sins and worse among everyone trying to get by.
You would think the thought would occur to them that they might learn something from the lack of Catholics going to confession. Of all the evils in the modern world, none are worse than systematic processes for creating and applying denial systems towards our willingness to acknowledge our sins. Too bad the synodalists cannot grasp that this is the evil of all they’ve been doing.
Based on the latest document from the Vatican referring to what Synodality will bring the Church in terms of dismantling Sacred Scripture and Tradition; my belief is that in many churches where there are true believers this “synodality” will be dead on arrival. Further, Pope Benedict’s statement that the future of the CHurch to paraphrase is one that will be smaller but stronger in Faith and teachings of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately our recent Pope’s have failed in their duty as Shepherd, too many of our Cardinals, Bishops and Priests have also failed the Laity and decided secularism is better than Sacredness.
A reflexion on the Synod on Synodality. A Synod, as practiced within the Church prior to 2013, is understood as a body of bishops and cardinals called together to address the truth and resolve current issues.
A permanent Synod suggests the Church is in constant need for correction and revision. Not simply structurally but doctrinally. That premise suggests revelation and Apostolic tradition are imperfect requiring revisions and additions.
This mindset requires that the Church makes a greater effort at revising and adding to Christ’s revelation than offering it to the world. Furthermore, the Catholic Laity and world acquire the inevitable belief that the commandments are negotiable. That a revealed truth can be its opposite.
This is the dilemma within our Church influenced within with a homosexual mentality, defined here as the prominence of sexual pleasure rather than its purpose. We can affirm the catalyst was the contraceptive pill and the divorce of the transmission of life from the conjugal act.
Homosexuals by nature approved the notorious distinction as rationale for the moral approbation of their disordered behavior. Today our Church is seriously infected by men and some women with a homosexual mentality. A never ending Synodal discussion on Church teaching favors their ends.
Faithful Laity and clergy have Christ, God with them, within them in the Trinitarian mystery of love, invincible and ever prepared to strengthen and inspire. Our task is to remain steadfast, to ‘hold fast’ to defend, to preach, and teach the gift of truth that he gave us.
Many good comments and insights, including spiritual insights, have already been offered so I will go in a different direction, probably less inspirational. After seeing the “fruits” of the first iteration of the Synod on Synodality, I keep returning to one thought: Who exactly are these Synod managers/organizers, and what authority do they have to make these kind of demands on fellow Catholics?
“What we are proposing to the local Churches,” Grech said, “is not an additional task but rather a time of shared discernment and thanksgiving in which to reread together what the Spirit is causing to grow in the Church and to recognize the steps we are called to take.”
He’s right in one way: they are not proposing “an additional task,” but a LOT of tasks, in pursuit of THEIR vision. Reading through the 18 pages of implementation procedures and activities, the organizers are making many demands on time and resources, from the parish through the diocesan to the national level.
As a member of a U.S. diocese in bankruptcy (one of dozens of similarly situated dioceses), where churches and schools have been closed and consolidated, I have seen enough to be thoroughly convinced that the Synod on Synodality is not worth investing any further time, effort or money in. And I have it on fairly good faith that we do not need this Synodal process to plead for assistance and guidance from the Holy Spirit. I think I will do some praying and find a charitable way of expressing that to my bishop. What good that will do, I don’t know, but perhaps it will do me good. “Come Holy Ghost, Creator blessed, and in our hearts take up Thy rest …”
The new “task”, of course, is to fully replace the message with the synodal process as being the message. We either do what we believe or now believe what we do…
Synodality: do be do be do!
“Less talk, more processions!”
What a bunch of nonsensical hardly gook!
The only emerging paradigm from the synodal sophists is that 2 + 2 =5 à la Spadaro.
The most active members in lay church ministry in my parish are OLD. And traditional. If this synod involves dismantling more church teaching, or incorporating homosexuality or more secularism in the church, I will predict they will not go along, nor assist in its implementation. They will leave and take their wallets with them. Since the rare convert and active young person tends to run conservative, who will that leave the church with?
It would be smart of the church to drop this nonsense NOW. AS for Leo, what a colossal disappointment. I think he will do nothing to stop this damage from happening.