On March 14, 2024, the General Secretariat of the Synod released a new document with its reflections on “How to be a synodal Church on mission,” adding further evidence that the “Synodal Church” is not the Catholic Church. Beyond this, the new document provides the most color to date on the related question of what the Synodal Church actually is.
We can see the refined contours of the Synodal Church through four themes considered in the new Synodal document: the need to adapt to the modern world and globalist objectives; proclaiming Christianity of the lowest common denominator; unity in diversity of religious beliefs; and a new relationship with the Bishop of Rome.
Need to Adapt to the Modern World and Globalist Objectives. The document stresses that the Synodal Church is still trying to figure out what it is, and how to respond to the needs of the modern world:
“If the drive for mission is constitutive of the Church and marks every moment of her history, missionary challenges will change over time. An effort must, therefore, be made to discern those of today’s world: if we fail to identify and respond to them, our proclamation will lose relevance and attractiveness.”
Will the Synodal Church respond to the greatest needs in today’s world: to convert sinners to the authentic Catholic religion, and oppose the demonic globalist agenda? No, the Synodal Church instead focuses on finding an ecclesiastical structure that loosely mimics that of the Catholic Church so that it can best minister to globalist objectives:
“The changes taking place and the awareness of the plurality of the faces of the People of God call for renewed attention to the relationships between the local Churches that, in communion with each other and with the Bishop of Rome, constitute the Church of God, a holy catholic and apostolic Church. In a world marked by violence and fragmentation, a witness to the unity of humanity, its common origin and common destiny, in a coordinated and fraternal solidarity towards social justice, peace, reconciliation and the care of the common home, thus overcoming the divisive potential of some erroneous ways of understanding the reference to a place, its inhabitants and its culture, appears ever more urgent.”
The tremendous changes taking place require the Synodal Church to rethink the relationship between local churches and the Bishop of Rome to address what it deems to be today’s urgent needs, which happen to correspond with the globalist goals: the unity of humanity, fraternal solidarity toward social justice, and care of the common home. Elsewhere, the new Synodal document repeats the Synodal Church’s desire to find a way to accommodate the globalist goals:
“What we are looking for is a way that is appropriate to today’s world to live unity in diversity, experiencing interconnectedness without crushing differences and peculiarities, but also without losing sight of the fact that some challenges—such as care for the common home, migration or digital culture—can only be taken up together.”
Why does the Synodal Church want to gather all Christians (other than Traditional Catholics) together to support the globalist objectives?
Of course the Synodal Church must “experiment” with how to proceed along this path of unity in plurality because — unlike the Catholic Church which was established by Our Lord roughly two-thousand years ago — the Synodal Church is Francis’s child and still in its infancy.
Proclaiming Christianity of the Lowest Common Denominator. At a passing glance, it may seem that the new Synodal document is a step in the right direction for the Synodal Church because it does refer to Jesus:
“The focus will, therefore, be the theme of everyone’s participation, with our varied vocations, charisms and ministries, in the one mission of proclaiming Jesus Christ to the world.”
However, the document notes that each group of Christians must be able to “express the message of Christ in its own way”:
“The working group . . . will explore points such as: . . . b) the reference to ‘place’ in the dynamics of proclamation, in relation to the principle that ‘the adaptation of the preaching of the revealed word must remain the law of all evangelisation. In this way, in fact, the ability of each people to express the message of Christ in its own way is stimulated, and at the same time a vital exchange between the Church and the different cultures of peoples is promoted” (Gaudium et spes, n. 44)”
While it may seem remotely possible to read this in a way that limits religious differences to those permitted within actual Catholicism, the Synodal document clarifies that the Synodal Church accommodates the views and “originality of each baptized person,” which obviously includes hundreds of millions of Protestants who adamantly reject key teachings of the Catholic Church:
“HOW can we be a synodal Church on mission? The objective is to identify the paths to take and the tools to adopt in the different contexts and circumstances, so as to enhance the originality of each baptised person and each Church in the unique mission of proclaiming the Risen Lord and His Gospel to the world today. “
So the “mission of proclaiming Jesus Christ to the world” can be carried out by any baptized person according to his or her interpretation of Christianity. As we have learned through painful experience, essentially the only impermissible interpretation is that professed by the rigid and backward Traditional Catholics.
Unity in Diversity of Religious Beliefs. Building on the promotion of a form of Christianity tailored to accommodate the lowest common denominator of the beliefs of all baptized people, the new document emphasizes the need for the “unity and plurality of the church”:
“Our brothers and sisters who have participated in synodal meetings, especially those who took part in the First Session, have had a real experience of the unity and plurality of the Church. Even in a time like ours, marked by growing inequalities, bitter polarisations and a continuous explosion of conflicts, the Church is, in Christ, a sign and instrument of union with God and unity between people, and is called to be so ever more visibly. Listening to the Holy Spirit, welcoming the testimony of Scripture and reading the signs of the times in faith, She can harmonise differences as an expression of the inexhaustible richness of the mystery of Christ. The experience of the Synod as a practice of unity in diversity thus represents a prophetic word addressed to a world that struggles to believe that peace and concord are possible.”
Naturally there will be a plurality of religious viewpoints in the Synodal Church because it accommodates the beliefs of all baptized souls (other than actual Catholics). However, echoing Lumen Gentium’s assertion that the “Church is in Christ like a sacrament or as a sign and instrument both of a very closely knit union with God and of the unity of the whole human race,” the new Synodal document proclaims that the Church harmonizes differences to visibly display unity in plurality. Translation: this new Synodal Church is a sign of unity through its encompassing of the beliefs of all baptized souls (other than Traditional Catholics).
The Synodal document also refers to the “ecumenism of blood,” which an earlier Synodal document had described in terms of "unity [that] comes from the Cross of the Lord.” The new Synodal document emphasizes that this unity does not make distinctions regarding “confessional affiliation”:
“The ecumenism of blood (cf. SR 7d) reminds us in a powerful way that witnessing to the Gospel to the point of giving one’s life is all the baptised, without distinction of confessional affiliation: it is, therefore, the common mission that constitutes the vector of the path towards Christian unity, starting from concrete forms of collaboration, which we must continue to promote and experiment.”
Of course the Synodal Church must “experiment” with how to proceed along this path of unity in plurality because — unlike the Catholic Church which was established by Our Lord roughly two-thousand years ago — the Synodal Church is Francis’s child and still in its infancy. All we know for certain at this point is that actual Catholicism has no place in the Synodal Church’s unification of diverse religious beliefs.
The Synodal leaders recognize that they cannot overtly discard the papacy without causing undue alarm, but they want to make it essentially superfluous so that it poses no obstacle to unity with Protestants.
A New Relationship with the Bishop of Rome. Perhaps the simplest and most accurate way of characterizing the Synodal Church is as a Protestant religion that professes some connection to a “Bishop of Rome." To accommodate those who have no interest in a relationship with a “Bishop of Rome” in an actual Catholic sense, the Synod seeks to reimagine the exercise of the Petrine ministry to further ecumenical aims:
“The ongoing synodal process is bringing out a new way of exercising the Petrine ministry. Thus, at the level of the universal Church, the question of the relationship between ecclesial synodality, episcopal collegiality and the primacy of the Bishop of Rome is emerging (cf. SR 13a). The Working Group that will take up this perspective will explore points such as: . . . b) the contribution of the ecumenical path ‘to the Catholic understanding of primacy, collegiality, synodality and their mutual relations” (SR 13b).’”
Thus, the Synodal leaders recognize that they cannot overtly discard the papacy without causing undue alarm, but they want to make it essentially superfluous so that it poses no obstacle to unity with Protestants. The new Synodal document contemplates that one key step to achieve this reimagining of the papacy involves elevating the “doctrinal and disciplinary authority” of the Episcopal Conferences while preserving a relationship with the Bishop of Rome:
“The Working Group, which will take on the perspective of the synodal Church on mission at the level of the groupings of Churches, will explore points such as: . . b) the statute of the Episcopal Conferences in a missionary synodal Church, so that they may grow as subjects of the exercise of collegiality in an all-synodal Church, also by increasing their own doctrinal and disciplinary authority, without limiting either the power proper to each Bishop in his Church, or that of the Bishop of Rome as the visible principle and foundation of unity of the whole Church.”
While it is reasonable to grant the Episcopal Conferences some latitude in disciplinary measures that do not compromise the Faith, in what sense could they legitimately be granted increased doctrinal authority?
The Synodal Church can spread a non-Catholic form of Christianity that adapts to fit the local cultures, such that the local churches remain united with each other, and the Bishop of Rome, despite their differences.
In this light, it is all the more stunning that the Vatican’s document authorizing the blessing of same-sex unions, Fiducia Supplicans, afforded an opportunity for the African bishops to coordinate with Rome to exercise their “own doctrinal and disciplinary authority” in a way that fundamentally departs from that of Rome. Here are the words of Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besengu, a “member of the council of the nine cardinals who accompany the pope for the reform of the Church,” who negotiated and signed the document with the Vatican allowing the African bishops to reject the blessing of same-sex unions:
“This is to express our position today in Africa and we do it in a spirit of communion, of synodality with Pope Francis, and with the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith: In Africa there is no place to bless homosexual couples. Not at all.”
Given the fact that allowing greater disciplinary and doctrinal authority to Episcopal Conferences is almost certainly more important in the grand scheme of the Synodal Church’s efforts than the permission to bless same-sex unions, it seems reasonable to ask whether the Vatican enacted the entire Fiducia Supplicans drama knowing it would provoke the strong Catholic response we saw from Africa.
In any case, this new Synodal document tells us that the dynamic that played out between Rome and Africa is one that we will likely see more often in the Synodal Church:
“In fact, it seems necessary to translate also on the institutional level the dynamism of reciprocity between evangelisation of culture and inculturation of the faith, giving space to local hermeneutics, without ‘the local’ becoming a reason for division and without ‘the universal’ turning into a form of hegemony.”
This convoluted sentence gives us a glimpse of the entire program: the Synodal Church can spread a non-Catholic form of Christianity that adapts to fit the local cultures, such that the local churches remain united with each other, and the Bishop of Rome, despite their differences. In this way, the Synodal Church can serve the anti-Catholic globalist agenda while giving the world the mistaken impression that it is the Catholic Church.
Do we need to see anything further from Francis and his Synodal Church at this point to conclude that it is serving the demonic globalist agenda? It is now unmistakably clear we cannot support the Synodal Church’s mission from Satan without opposing the Catholic Church’s mission from Our Lord. Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!
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