Quota Synod as an instrument of Papal absolutism

We already have 'Synod Mothers' in a Synod that is no longer the assembly of bishops defined by Paul VI. So much insistence on traditionalists abiding by the Second Vatican Council while Rome makes sleeves and hoods out of its provisions.

Pope Francis, as we reported yesterday, has approved the participation of lay men and women in the Synod on Synodality, with a quarter of the total vote of the assembly.

Bishop Grech, secretary of the synod, has been in charge of explaining the inexplicable, namely that "the Episcopal specificity of the Synodal Assembly is not affected, but even confirmed".

The new rules are presented as an alteration of Pope Francis' 2018 Apostolic Constitution Episcopalis Communio, which stipulates the governance and functioning of the Synod of Bishops.

The Episcopal synod is a very ancient institution in the Church, but one that languished for centuries until it was taken up and 'given a new significance' by that Council of Councils which, it seems, was Vatican II. "We have the joy of announcing to you the institution, so longed for by this Council, of a Synod of Bishops, which, composed of Bishops, appointed for the most part by the Episcopal Conferences with our approval, will be convoked, according to the needs of the Church, by the Roman Pontiff, for consultation and collaboration, when, for the general good of the Church, it seems to him opportune", Paul VI exulted in his motu proprio Apostolica sollicitudo of 15 September 1965. "I need hardly add that this collaboration of the Episcopate must be of great benefit to the Holy See and to the whole Church, in a particular way to the daily work of the Roman Curia, to which We are so grateful for its most valuable help, and of which, like the Bishops in their dioceses, We too have constant need for our Apostolic solicitude".

But, as the present Pontiff says, there is no need to fear changes which, in this case, mean the abolition of the Synod of Bishops as it has always been understood and, above all, since that last Council which constitutes the permanent and almost unique reference of the present Pontificate.

It may or may not be appropriate for lay men and women to vote in a Synod, but it is certainly no longer, by definition, an assembly of Bishops. It is something else, more modern, more in keeping with the world: a Synod of Quotas.

But the innovations, so much to the Vatican's taste, are of the type to which Francis has accustomed us: very effective and with a participatory appearance, but keeping all the control in his hands. Because those seventy non-bishops (priests, deacons, consecrated women and lay people) who replace the synod reviewers will be chosen personally by Francis from a list of 140 people, presented by the various bishops' conferences and by the Assembly of Patriarchs of the Eastern Catholic Churches. They will be of the Pope's persuasion, they will say what the Pope wishes, but the Pope will be able to present their voices as the voice of the people of God.

And parity, of course, because half of these non-episcopal participants have to be women. These seventy have the right to vote, although they cannot exceed more than a quarter of the total vote of the assembly.

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