{"id":11319,"date":"2018-10-12T11:18:33","date_gmt":"2018-10-12T17:18:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=11319"},"modified":"2018-10-12T11:18:33","modified_gmt":"2018-10-12T17:18:33","slug":"synod-update-well-actually-not-so-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2018\/10\/synod-update-well-actually-not-so-much.html","title":{"rendered":"Synod update – well, actually, not so much"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/p>\n

So here\u2019s the deal:\u00a0 when the Synod of Bishops first started, I had expected that I would watch the reports and keep up with the news coming out of Rome, and type up little summaries as a way of both sharing things with readers and digesting the information itself.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s what I\u2019ve learned:\u00a0 there\u2019s not much to share.<\/p>\n

The information being shared officially is bland.\u00a0 \u201cYoung people want to be listened to.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cYoung people want a personal connection to their priests and bishops.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cYoung people expect priests and bishops to set a good example rather than just lecturing them.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cYoung people want to be involved in care for the environment and other issues.\u201d \u201cWe need to do more to help migrants (whose needs are slotted into the synod because\u00a0they are predominantly young adults).\u201d\u00a0 Blah blah blah.\u00a0 Talk about sports and social media.\u00a0 And one quote that was floating around was a recap of a discussion of \u201cyoung people like \u2018praise music.\u2019 But some young people are into chant.\u00a0 Well, whatever, they want music that sounds good and isn\u2019t bland.\u201d<\/p>\n

And an article at the National Catholic Register<\/a> last week reports that the lack of information is intentional \u2014 with the rationale either being to allow participants to speak freely without worries of misinterpretation or, alternatively, because synod participants (who, remember, are bishops) simply don\u2019t accept church teaching and want to be able to voice their dissent openly.<\/p>\n

But that same article also discusses the possibility that the synod document that will be voted on at the end of the event might contain some unwelcome declaration:<\/p>\n

The issue is significant as many believe this synod is being subtly used as a vehicle for introducing heterodoxy and, in particular, acceptance of the \u2018LGBT\u2019 homosexual agenda in the Church (the term was controversially used in the synod\u2019s working document). Observers also believe this issue will find its way into the final document which, for the first time under new rules, could become part of the papal magisterium depending on the Pope\u2019s approval. According to some sources, the main substance of that document is actually already written, hence the lack of transparency, the absence of a mid-term report, and ambiguities over voting procedures at the end of the synod.<\/p>\n

Possibly connected have been words from Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, president of the Italian bishops\u2019 conference and known to be close to Pope Francis, who said Oct. 5 that he is \u201cconvinced that Pope Francis will give us some surprise\u201d and \u201cwill for sure invent something before the conclusion of the Synod.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This creeps me out, honestly, and all the more so given the Register\u2019s report<\/a> on the synod participants who have been chosen to write the final document.\u00a0 At the same time, I don\u2019t like the fact that there is so little information available.<\/p>\n

So on the one hand, it seems rather possible that the outcome will be a distinctly non-theological document, full of \u201cbest practices\u201d with the sort of hodgepodge of ideas of \u201cThings The Youth Want\u201d and \u201cWays We Can Get Them To Come Back\/Stay Here\u201d that comes with input from hundreds of people, with various social justice messages thrown in for good measure, but without any real, meaningful content.\u00a0 On the other hand, given the secretiveness of the whole process, it seems just as likely that people with an agenda can drive this towards a document which can garner enough votes, due to the nature of the selection of bishops and due to strategy and politics, which does either declare some wholly new teaching or deliberately aims to set the church on the path towards such by means of some ambiguous wording.<\/p>\n

And it reminds me of Ross Douthat\u2019s description of the prior synod<\/a>, on the family, in which he says that the pope had \u201cstacked the deck\u201d in terms of attendees, in order to produce a document that signed off on removing the church\u2019s teaching on the indissolubility of marriage, but that the mid-conference report generated such outrage and the paragraphs on such in the final report couldn\u2019t get the necessary votes.<\/p>\n

Which suggests that the lack of the mid-conference report and the fact that the voting process is unclear, at best<\/a>, could well be a set-up for enabling liberals to push through their doctrine-changing agenda.\u00a0 Whether it will<\/em> be, we won\u2019t know \u2014 but by the time we do know, it may be too late.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image:\u00a0\u00a0from Flickr: https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/113018453@N05\/14037472464<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So here\u2019s the deal:\u00a0 when the Synod of Bishops first started, I had expected that I would watch the reports and keep up with the news coming out of Rome, and type up little summaries as a way of both sharing things with readers and digesting the information itself. But here\u2019s what I\u2019ve learned:\u00a0 there\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":6578,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[317,1065],"class_list":["post-11319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-pope-francis","tag-youth-synod"],"yoast_head":"\nSynod update - well, actually, not so much<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"So here's the deal:\u00a0 when the Synod of Bishops first started, I had expected that I would watch the reports and keep up with the news coming out of Rome,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2018\/10\/synod-update-well-actually-not-so-much.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Synod update - 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