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Above: a photo op with the Synod on Synodality. Source.
The Scene: Several months have elapsed since the death of the pope. After days of debate over who might become the next pontiff, speculation has turned to when the conclave will be over. What is taking so long? Rumors abound: might there be fierce infighting among the cardinals? Might the churches in various geographic territories be blocking the election?
Whatever the cause of the delay, the mood of the faithful since the death of the pope has gone from anticipation of a new pope, to agitation over the delay in the conclave, and now to a grudging resignation that the Church may be without a pope for the foreseeable future.
Unexpectedly, the Vatican announces that, worldwide, the Traditional Latin Mass has been fully suppressed and may no longer be offered; the indult for its limited transitional continuation under Traditionis Custodes has terminated; and that all Catholics are invited to attend a special Mass in their parish churches, scheduled for noon, local time, the following Sunday, to hear a very important announcement. Against this backdrop, the play begins.
When: The last Sunday in Ordinary Time
Where: The Church of the Inspiration
Celebrant: Father Pastor
Homilist: Father Visitor
Gathering Hymn: “Sing a New Church”
The church is filled to capacity. Every pew is full. The faithful are standing in the aisles. There is a nervous murmur in the congregation as the time for Mass approaches. A bell is heard. The murmur ceases and the Gathering Hymn begins. Father Pastor approaches the altar, preceded by four altar servers, a boy and three girls, dressed in off-white garments in the style of monks’ robes.
Father Pastor begins Mass. After he reads the Gospel he introduces Father Visitor, who replaces Father Pastor at the pulpit. Father Visitor begins:
Thank you, Father Pastor, for permitting me to address your parishioners on this momentous occasion. I bring greetings from the Vatican in Rome. My name is Father Visitor. I teach at the diocesan seminary and I am one of several thousand priests who have been chosen to address parishes throughout the world today to announce good news regarding the papacy and the Church going forward.
[He then begins to read from a prepared text.]
Next Sunday a new liturgical year begins. And this year the Church will be renewed as well. After years of listening as part of our synodal process, we have learned that there are two major obstacles to Christian unity: ultramontanism and transubstantiation. Next Sunday those impediments come down. Next Sunday our Church embraces the whole world and fulfills the Great Commission of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Since the year 1054, our Orthodox brethren have been like us in all ways but one, namely, submission to the authority of the pope. And yet we do not differ from them in the fundamentals of faith. Insistence upon supreme papal authority, that is, ‘ultramontanism,’ for nearly a thousand years has served no purpose except to divide the world’s largest religion. Next Sunday the schism in the Church begins to heal.
This will happen in two ways. First, the baptismal Symbol of the Roman Church, that is, the Apostles’ Creed, will replace the Nicene Creed in the Liturgy of the Word. This is nothing new. It has always been permissible in the Novus Ordo Mass for the priest to substitute the Apostles’ Creed for the Nicene Creed. Perhaps you have been to a Mass recently where this was done.
Both creeds express belief in the Holy Spirit. The Apostles’ Creed, however, makes no attempt to explain the Holy Spirit, as does the Nicene Creed. This attempted explanation, summed up in the Latin word, Filióque, was at the heart of the Great Schism of 1054.
Truly, the attempted explanation of the Holy Spirit was unnecessary and probably unwarranted. Human words could never explain a supernatural reality that is simply beyond human comprehension. Without the unnecessary embellishment of the Filióque, east and west can be united in confessing one creed.
The second step in restoring Catholic unity will be the curtailing of the concept of papal sovereignty. Our Orthodox brethren have a patriarch, but not a pope. Yet they have thrived side-by-side with us down through the centuries. One of the marks of our Church is that it is ‘apostolic.’ The successors of the apostles are today’s bishops. The Orthodox Church has understood that one bishop may be the first among equals but when one bishop is considered to be supreme, the others are diminished.
Next Sunday we will add a new mark to the Catholic Church: The Church is Synodal. This is intended as reinforcement of the apostolic mark, in recognition that the Church has become the church for the whole world, not governable by a single, supreme individual. In November, 1964, Saint Paul VI relinquished the gold and bejeweled papal tiara, the symbol of papal authority. That moment set the Church on a journey to the place where we are today. Now the journey is finished. Next Sunday the Church will become again fully apostolic, which is to say, a synodal church.
The Eucharistic prayers of the Mass will no longer refer to the pope. With the amendments that we are announcing today, the way has been cleared for the reunification of the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic and Synodal Church.
[A fifth altar server appears and joins the others.]
We turn now to reunification with our separated Christian brethren.
After years of listening as part of our synodal process, we have learned that the second major obstacle to Christian unity is transubstantiation. Our Christian brethren are simply unpersuaded by philosophical arguments from the thirteenth century concerning the ‘substance and accidents’ of bread and wine.
Nonetheless, their faith is real. For many of our separated Christian brethren, Holy Communion is a spiritual sharing in the body and blood of Christ Our Lord. They believe that Christ is present in the bread and wine but not that the bread and wine have become the body and blood of Christ. If Christ is present in the bread and wine, is the sacrifice offered by the priest any less pleasing to God? Do we not say that we believe in the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist?
The distinction between the two beliefs is so infinitesimal that the separation of our Christian brethren can no longer be justified on that basis. Instead, we will focus on what unites us, namely, belief in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, without regard to the way in which any member of the congregation may understand that presence.
The Church has been preparing for this moment for decades. Think about the very beginning of the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The priest describes what we expect to happen:
‘Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, for through your goodness we have received the bread we offer you. Fruit of the earth and work of human hands, it will become for us the bread of life.’
Pouring a little water into the chalice containing the wine, the priest says:
‘By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity.’
And then the priest says:
‘Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, for through your goodness we have received the wine we offer you: fruit of the vine and work of human hands, it will become our spiritual drink.’
Note that there is no reference to an expectation of the physical transformation of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. Note also the words “sharing,” “bread of life” and “spiritual drink.” Are these not expressions of the same beliefs about the bread, wine and Communion as held by our separated Christian brethren? In truth, we have been uniting ourselves with them for decades. Next Sunday the Church takes the formal step of reunification and opens its doors to our brethren and welcomes them home.
The words of the Consecration at Mass will remain unchanged. The Eucharistic Prayers, however, will be amended to remove other references to the transubstantiation of bread and wine into the physical body and blood of Christ. This will in no way diminish the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
[The hymn, “I Am the Bread of Life” begins faintly in the background.]
With that, brothers and sisters, let me be the first to welcome you to the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic and Synodal Church. Go forth now and spread the good news.
[The hymn increases in volume. Exeunt.]
The End
Author’s note: When the modernists finally and formally announce their new synodal church, how might they do it? I was in the pews in the 1960s when the new Mass was announced. They told us that, going forward, the Mass was going to be said in English but that nothing was changing. We know now that that was not the case. But at the time, we accepted it. This was, after all, the Catholic Church. There was no reason to think that something might be amiss.
I have written this one-scene play to recreate that day in the 1960s, but this time, instead of announcing that the same Mass as always would now be said in English, they are bringing about the termination of the papacy, the abolition of the Holy Eucharist and the outlawing of the Traditional Latin Mass. I tried to write it in such a way that it might sound like progress to today’s Catholic congregation.
The fallacies in Father Visitor’s address are easy to spot, but only if you are looking for them. To the unwary ear, he may sound very convincing. Yet the event is so outrageous that, perhaps somewhere, after reading this, a sincere Catholic might set off on a journey of discovery.
RAK
