Most organisations would want PR disasters to come to an end as soon as possible, but not the Vatican. Today, Pope Francis announced that the increasingly haphazard Synodal Process will now be extended into 2024.
October 2023 was supposed to be the final event of the process, but now it will extend into 2024, despite (or because of) the increasingly lawless manner with which the process is unfolding in the West.
In Germany, the church is facing a schism on virtually every issue. This has led Pope Francis to comment that the country does not need a second Evangelical Church.
In Belgium, the bishops are doing what their predessors did during the Second Vatican Council. Back then, they illicitly offered Communion in the hand which is now offered in churches throughout the world as an indult. Now, they are defying Pope Francis by offering blessings for same sex unions.
In Ireland, the Synodal Synthesis Document launched a shocking tirade against young priests, despite the country's vocations crisis. Incidentally, the words of the attack were almost identical to a subversive priest group that is heavily linked to the country's anti Catholic Fine Gael party. Who knows, maybe it was pure coincidence, but it is very odd that the individual in question is involved in the Synod and that the words were almost identical to his. As a result, the good faith that greeted the Synod in many Irish parishes has all but disappeared and those in leadership roles have made no effort to mend the damage.
In the United States of America, a recent Synod event was depicted in bizarre childlike art on the official Synod social media. It depicted a priestess, a person of indeterminate sex wearing a 'Pride' shirt and identified a young man on a Synod panel as 'Queer'. The individual depicted has since said that he is not a Queer and that the Synod misrepresented him as such for their art.
Today, Pope Francis has said:
"In order to have a more relaxed period of discernment.
The fruits of the synodal process under way are many, but so that they might come to full maturity, it is necessary not to be in a rush.
I trust that this decision will promote the understanding of synodality as a constitutive dimension of the Church, and help everyone to live it as the journey of brothers and sisters who proclaim the joy of the Gospel".
Participation in the Synodal Process has been remarkably low in many countries and this has not been helped by the perception that results are already decided, similar to Ireland's farcical Citizen's Assemblies, where the government hand picks citizens who will give them the desired result and then flaunts it as democracy in action. The Synod Synthesis Documents were remarkably similar in many countries and many who attended local sessions complained that what the said or heard was not reflected in documents. Certainly the Irish Synod's bitter and nasty attack on young priests was not a common theme at all. It was put in there because influential old liberal cranks wanted it in there. What is this if not clericalism dressed up as Synodality?
The rhetoric from the Synodalists is growing increasingly esoteric, radical and Messianic, with much of it claiming that they are the guardians of the Holy Spirit. This gnostic appeal to authority is dangerous and arrogant language and evidence of an increasing bunker mentality amongst radical Synodalists.
One can only hope that the next two years bring a little more humility and a lot less scheming from those currently undermining the very process that they champion.
Synod Will Continue Until Synodality Improves