Synodality as enemy of Vatican II, heralding Papal absolutism

Discussion about reform of the Synod of Bishops continues

Revolution or counter-revolution in disguise?

The latest reform of the Roman Synod of Bishops, which also grants voting rights to women, male laity and priests, is an insufficient step for many. Others judge the approach as pre-conciliar traditionalism.

Some write of a "profound institutional change" and speak of a "revolution" in the Church. The Luxembourg Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich considers it at least an important change: in future, women will also be allowed to vote in the worldwide bishops' assemblies in the Vatican. Priests, religious and lay men will also be allowed to vote. The Synod is thus to become an icon of the whole Church.

From Collegiality to Synodality

After the changes now made by Pope Francis, the focus of the Synod of Bishops shifts from collegiality to synodality: from the consultation of the Pope by the Bishops as bearers of the ordinary teaching office to the entire People of God, from whom the Pope chooses his advisors.

The six continental bishops' councils and the assembly of Patriarchs of the Eastern Catholic Churches will each propose 20 participants. From this total of 140 nominees, the Pope will select the final 70 non-episcopal Synod participants. They make up about 25 percent of the total Synod participants. And there is a 50 percent quota of women.

Exclusively consultative

Following the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), Paul VI had created the Synod of Bishops as a permanent institution. It was to represent the episcopate of the universal Church and emphasise the collegiality of the Pope and the bishops. It does not make decisions itself, but advises the Pope.

The Pope appoints its members, convenes it and usually attends its meetings. There was therefore no open dissent between the Pope and the Synod. Nevertheless, the post-conciliar liturgical reform, for example, would never have been implemented in this way if Paul VI had felt bound by the vote of the Synod of Bishops.

New understanding of synod

The Italian theologian Andrea Grillo, who belongs to the progressive camp, sees in Francis' legislative step the strengthening of the "authority of the people of God", which cannot be "simply reduced to episcopal authority".

But the liturgical scholar, who teaches at the Benedictine University of Sant'Anselmo in Rome, also points out that a new understanding of synod is now emerging at the level of the universal Church. One that is more different from that of the Christian East.

Softening the hierarchical structure

There, only bishops are part of the synod. The Synod of the new type, on the other hand, mixes it with the model of the Western Diocesan Synod, in which lay people have been allowed to participate alongside clerics since the Second Vatican Council. This change, Grillo emphasises, softens the hierarchical form of the Church.

But it does not escape his gaze that priests, religious and lay people are by no means elected, but appointed by the Pope. They are not meant to "represent" groups or the people of God, but to "remember" the prophetic path of the Synod. In this way, however, they confirmed the "episcopal" quality of the Synod - after all, they are synodal only through the legislator, the Bishop of Rome.

With this reform act, Pope Francis is logically continuing the course he has already taken in the reform of the Curia with "Praedicate Evangelium". Since then, lay people and priests can also be appointed to the highest Curia offices and have the right to vote in the dicasteries as if they were bishops.

Critics see this as a certain liquefaction of the ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council, which strengthened the episcopate and closely linked the government of the Church and the power of ordination. The loosening of this close bond, which is being promoted above all by Francis' legal adviser, Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda, has theological critics angry. The Jesuit canon lawyer and ex-Rector of the Gregorian University is already being ridiculed in some circles as a "pre-conciliar".

Success or failure?

The success or failure of the World Synod this and next autumn 2024 will judge the new synodal model of the "World Episcopal Assembly". If, like Bernini's colonnades in St Peter's Square, the model is able to embrace the whole people of God, and if it is capable of overcoming polarisation, this should pave the way for further changes in canon law. These would then also allow for greater participation of religious and lay people in dioceses.

Church historian Alberto Melloni, however, head of the "School of Bologna", which is leading research into the last Council, has already criticised Francis' reform of the Curia. Its principle is a thesis "that goes to the heart of the Second Vatican Council and represents a decisive point for the future of the Church". It is contrary to conciliar theology.

The new Curia constitution gives lay people the possibility of receiving offices, endowed with a power of governance that the Church has linked to the reception of Holy Orders, he said. "Indirectly, this affirms that the power of governance in the Church does not derive from the Sacrament of Ordination, but from the canonical mission, otherwise what is envisaged in the Apostolic Constitution itself would not be possible."

"Theological defeat for standard-bearers of progressivism"

While in some circles Cardinal Ghirlanda is framed as a crypto-traditionalist, Roman historian Roberto de Mattei is almost delighted with the legislative novelties of the Jesuit Pope "from the end of the world". The professor, who belongs to the conservative camp of Italian Catholicism, already stated a "heavy theological defeat for the standard-bearers of progressism" due to Melloni's objections to Francis' reform projects. Similar to the reform of the Order of Malta, the Pope's intervention had, contrary to expectations, led to a strengthening of classical positions.

For the reform of the Curia and the Synod, he said, this meant that the power to govern was derived solely from the Petrine office and not from the sacrament of Episcopal ordination. For the reform of the Synod of Bishops, this applies with regard to the right to vote for non-bishops. But here too there is a certain historical precedent. Until decades ago, Cardinals also had equal rights in the Roman cardinal congregations, even if they had not been ordained priests or bishops. Regardless of how one may evaluate the reforms by Pope Francis - Grillo, Melloni and de Mattei state, despite all differences: Through the reforms, one above all gains power - the Pope.

Source

Cathcon: Those who play games with fire tend to be consumed by it.  The modernists while attacking the traditionalists for not accepting the Second Vatican Council, accept it even less themselves. Irony.  Dangerous irony.