Synod on Synodality: New Springtime or Pandora’s Box?
A talk given to the Latin Mass Society of Arlington on Nov. 8 offers a look at the Oct. 4-29 general assembly of the Synod of Bishops, what it signifies and where the process might go from here.
The first of two general assemblies of the Synod on Synodality that was completed last month was, as expected, fraught with plenty of acrimony and contention.
Eagerly awaited by some, thoroughly dreaded by others, the 16th General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the theme “For a Synodal Church: Communion Participation, Mission” was, for its supporters, a means to renew the Church, welcome those who feel marginalized by her teaching, and “bring communion with Christ to a broken humanity so desperately seeking it.”
But to its detractors, it was nothing short of the latest stage of a revolution that “takes up old heresies” in a bid not only to introduce heterodoxy into the Church but, in the words of Cardinal Raymond Burke, “to change radically the Church’s self-understanding, in accord with a contemporary ideology which denies much of what the Church has always taught and practiced.”
In a Nov. 8 talk I gave to the Latin Mass Society in Arlington, Virginia, I took a closer look at the gathering — the persistent questions over its legitimacy, why the process is so significant, how the assembly was managed (or rigged to achieve a certain end), and to what extent the assembly might aid evangelization or end up subverting the Church’s apostolic tradition.
The full text of my talk can be read on my website, watched on the ALMS YouTube channel or viewed below:
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Edward Pentin Edward Pentin is the Register’s Senior Contributor and EWTN News Vatican Analyst. He began reporting on the Pope and the Vatican with Vatican Radio before moving on to become the Rome correspondent for EWTN's National Catholic Register. He has also reported on the Holy See and the Catholic Church for a number of other publications including Newsweek, Newsmax, Zenit, The Catholic Herald, and The Holy Land Review, a Franciscan publication specializing in the Church and the Middle East. Edward is the author of The Next Pope: The Leading Cardinal Candidates (Sophia Institute Press, 2020) and The Rigging of a Vatican Synod? An Investigation into Alleged Manipulation at the Extraordinary Synod on the Family (Ignatius Press, 2015). Follow him on Twitter at @edwardpentin.
