For the sake of Christ’s love, stop the overkill of synodal documents. Synodality has become a “hermeneutic” for everything and anything, especially for the co-decision of lay people at all levels. Where are the supporters of tradition, mostly young people and families, in this process? Where is their vote in this much-vaunted, sui generis synodal process? So far, they have been left out. Do not believe that in our part of the world people are satisfied with “listening” and “speaking in the Spirit.” Changes are demanded.
Editor’s Note: What follows is one of the best ecclesiastical takedowns of Synodality I have ever read. The only thing necessary for evil to triumph in the Church is for good bishops to say nothing. Well, one good bishop who has consistently refused to say nothing is His Excellency Bishop Marian Eleganti, O.S.B. – Bishop Emeritus of Chur, Switzerland, Titular Bishop of Lamdia. I had the honor of meeting His Excellency in Rome last year and found him to be a man of great intellect (Doctor of Theology), great courage (as the following article makes abundantly clear), and great faith, which is why on the occasion of our very first meeting, I invited His Excellency to speak at this year’s Catholic Identity Conference. He agreed, and I thank God for more proof that He has not abandoned us. The takeaway? Never give up hope. The Church is God’s to save, and He will do so in His good time. In the meantime, the remnant of Christianity is alive and well, and it includes a growing number of princes of the Church and successors of Christ’s Apostles who refuse to be silent in the face of evil. MJM
SYNODALITY AS A CODE WORD
By Bishop Marian Eleganti
For the sake of Christ’s love, stop the overload of synodal documents, intermediate steps, guidelines for further synodality, announcements of results, final documents that are not final, extensions into further rounds of synodality, the proliferation of commissions and, in the end, a gathering in canonical wasteland.
The vast majority of God’s people ignore your documents. In my experience, hardly any believers know about them at all and even fewer bother to read them. So, stop spinning in circles in a process that has not awakened love for Jesus Christ in a single soul but instead has mainly occupied the imagination of “reform Catholics” in places such as Germany.
Stop multiplying yourselves in working groups and commissions! The people of God are not interested in this.
You live in a bubble and employ the wrong people. For too long, the bishops have already been sitting at round tables. So, too, the invocation of the Holy Spirit comes far too easily to your lips. And the results of it are nothing but fog, blessings that would be better left unsaid, leadership models that contradict canon law, new committees and councils, as if we did not have enough of them already after 60 years.
Instead of proclaiming Synodality, proclaim the Gospel for the sake of Christ’s love. Proclaim Christ to a Europe that has turned away from Him. Proclaim Christ to a world that is apocalyptic and constantly at war. Talk about the Way to Jesus Christ instead of the Synodal Way! The way you speak of synodality is not new; others have already spelled it out – the Anglicans, for example, resulting in endless new divisions in the ranks.
Stop keeping the Church in a never-ending synodal frenzy. While you speak of mutual enrichment, the real problems in the Church are not being discussed: the mass apostasy of the baptized from essential tenets of the faith such as the divinity of Jesus and his bodily resurrection; the problem of liturgical formlessness and widespread abuses in the Novus Ordo; no priestly vocations in many countries; widespread heterodox preaching in catechesis and university theology; Pastoral practices that contradict Catholic teaching and canon law.
This list is incomplete, but you understand my meaning.
I can no longer listen to your propaganda, and I suspect that I am not the only one. Before Pope Francis, the Church was never governed in such an authoritarian and manipulative manner, with this never-ending synodal attempt to achieve pre-determined results. But Godot has not come. At least not yet, and by its very nature it is futile to wait for him! What has come is the evolution of doctrine – a shifting sand dune, not the rock of Peter.
According to Scripture, before the end of time, there will be a great falling away of the faith, prophets will arise who will flatter the ears, people will seek teachings according to their own tastes, a truth that costs nothing, homosexuality and diversity; the Antichrist, and finally martyrdom. We can read about this in the New Testament.
The only thing correct about your synodality is the traditional teaching of discerning the Spirit, the desire to listen to GOD. But there is nothing new about that. “Hear, O Israel” (Shema Yisrael) and the Rule of St. Benedict both begin with the word “Hear!” and are time-honored Catholic ideas. The traditional teaching on discernment of the Spirit is not the invention of the “Synod on Synodality.”
What is new is the Synodal illusion that this work of discernment can be carried out with 1.4 billion Catholics—many of whom hold utterly heterodox views— only with the process of listening being politicized, instrumentalized, manipulated, or steered in a particular direction and possibly derailed, as has happened in Germany. Fiducia supplicans and Traditionis custodes are highly controversial documents, and yet they came about against all the rules of Synodality and listening that you preach.
Where are the supporters of tradition, mostly young people and families, in this synodal process? Where is their vote in this much-vaunted, sui generis synodal process? So far, they have been left out. In some countries (France, England), many young adults want to be baptized. Young people interested in the faith study the catechism and want a reverently celebrated liturgy. They are asking for more mystery in the celebration of Holy Mass. Who in your Church of Accompaniment is listening to them?
In some European countries, Christians will be a demographic minority to Muslims 25 years from now. Does anyone in the Synodal Church care about the rise of Islam and the decline of Christianity?
Don’t turn the Church into a marketplace of ideas for heterodox initiatives and inventions! Do something for the renewal of the liturgy and catechesis in these anti-Christian times! More missionaries, fewer spin doctors.
Synodality has become a “hermeneutic” for everything and anything, especially for whatever lax Catholics want to change. The sacramentality of the ecclesiastical office of church leadership has been severely damaged by an egalitarian synodality that makes no distinction between the ordained and the non-ordained. This contradicts the teaching of the Council and the 2000-year-old apostolic laws of the Mystical Body of Christ!
Don’t fool yourselves – in our part of the world, Catholics are not satisfied with merely “listening” and “speaking in the Spirit.” They want change, and they are demanding it. After the long and costly synodal process, they want to see results: they want to see deaconess and female dicastery prefects, they want female chancellors of the ordinariate; the abolition of celibacy due to a shortage of priests; they demand equality of the ordained and the non-ordained in ecclesiastical decision-making and committees; they want women in offices previously reserved for priests and bishops.
Why is this happening? In secular organizations, hierarchical structures are not questioned and undermined like this. Decisions are made by management or CEOs, and those decisions must be followed and implemented. Not so when it comes to the Synodal Church, where synodality has become a code word for the opposite (a flat hierarchy; so-called power control; democratic, church-political processes; a functional understanding of office; replacing the good shepherd with collectives) and, last but not least, non-priestly forms of worship.
The shepherd follows the sheep. The teacher learns from the student. Actions determine what should be done (morality by praxis). The majority determine the truth. The priest obeys the laity. The bishop sits on the sidelines. And “the spirit” hovers above it all. The question is — which spirit is it?
For the sake of Christ’s love, stop it. Proclaim the Gospel. Proclaim Christ to the world once again. Enough with Synodality!
(Published July 15, 2025)
