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On Sunday, the feast of Christ the King according to the New calendar, the Roman Pontiff issued an “Accompanying Note to the Final Document of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops.” He begins this note by invoking Revelation 2:11 of the entire Roman “Synodal Way”:
At various moments along the path of the Synod that I began in October 2021, we have listened to what the Holy Spirit is saying to the Churches at this time.[1]
As it happens, this note came just a few days after Cardinal Müller, Pope Francis’s former doctrinal head, penned his own commentary on the Synodal Way in First Things, making reference to this very passage:
“Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches” (Rev. 2:11). This passage from Scripture is frequently quoted to justify a so-called “synodal Church,” a concept that at least partially, if not completely, contradicts the Catholic understanding of the Church. Factions with ulterior motives have hijacked the traditional principle of synodality, meaning the collaboration between bishops (collegiality) and between all believers and shepherds of the Church (based on the common priesthood of all those baptized into the faith), to further their progressive agenda. By executing a 180-degree turn, the doctrine, liturgy, and morality of the Catholic Church is to be made compatible with a neo-gnostic woke ideology.
His Eminence’s commentary bears the fiery title: “The Seven Sins against the Holy Spirit: a Synodal Tragedy.” In it, he accuses the Synodal way and the Roman Pontiff of adopting the tactics of the ancient Gnostics:
Direct divine revelation is weaponized to make the self-relativization of the Church of Christ acceptable (“all religions are paths to God”). The direct communication between the Holy Spirit and Synod participants is invoked to justify arbitrary doctrinal concessions (“marriage for all”; lay officials at the helm of ecclesiastical “power”; the ordination of female deacons as a trophy in the fight for women’s rights) as the result of a higher insight, which can overcome any objections from established Catholic doctrine. But anyone who, by appealing to personal and collective inspiration from the Holy Spirit, seeks to reconcile the teaching of the Church with an ideology hostile to revelation and with the tyranny of relativism is guilty in various ways of a “sin against the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 12:31; Mark 3:29; Luke 12:10).
He then lists and condemns seven sins against the Holy Spirit as being the following:
- Confusion of the Divine Personhood of the Holy Spirit with the zeitgeist of Hegel et al.
- Reinterpreting the history of Christian dogma as an evolution of revelation
- Giving local bishops’ conferences doctrinal development authority in the name of “decentralization”
- Deposing bishops “purely at personal discretion, without a canonical process”
- Opportunistically supporting the Pope for ideological reasons
- Politicizing the Church according to the categories and historical philosophy of Liberalism
- Denying the supernatural character of Christianity in order to subordinate it to the secular goals of globalism et al.
He then invokes Nicaea: “With the upcoming 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea (325), we might bear the following motto in mind: Better to go into exile five times with St. Athanasius than to make the slightest concession to the Arians.” He then concludes with the stirring words to stand firm for the King of Kings:
Anyone who really wants to hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church will not rely on spiritualistic inspirations and woke-ideological platitudes, but will place all their trust, in life and death, solely in Jesus, the Son of the Father and the Anointed One of the Holy Spirit. He alone has promised his disciples the Holy Spirit of truth and love for all eternity: “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. . . . But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you” (John 14:23–26).
Without a doubt, this is the true message of Revelation as understood by the early Church, as the seven letters of Jesus to the churches conclude always with a promise for he who overcomes in the time of persecution.
But let us return now to the Roman Pontiff. He reviews the three year long “synodal journey” (percorso sinodale) wherein the Church has “allowed itself to be enlightened by the Holy Spirit” (Lasciandosi illuminare dallo Spirito Santo), coming finally to the publication of the final Synod’s final document.
Now the journey continues in the local Churches and in their groupings, treasuring the Final Document that was voted on and approved in all its parts by the Assembly on 26 October. I too approved it and, by signing it, I arranged for its publication, joining the “we” of the Assembly which, through the Final Document, addresses the holy faithful People of God.[2]
Then the Holy Father clarifies the authoritative nature of the document:
The Final Document participates in the ordinary Magisterium of the Successor of Peter (cf. EC 18 § 1; CCC 892) and as such I ask that it be accepted. It represents a form of exercise of the authentic teaching of the Bishop of Rome that has some novel features but which in effect corresponds to what I had the opportunity to clarify on 17 October 2015, when I stated that synodality is the appropriate interpretative framework for understanding the hierarchical ministry.[3]
He then explains that the implementation of this document, however, can take different forms according to the region, including different doctrinal interpretations. This becomes highly significant when the Holy Father invokes “with conviction” (con convinzione) the same “complex synodal journey” (articolato cammino sinodale) which led to Amoris Laetitia, saying that different regions implement differently, even doctrinally.
As readers of OnePeterFive are well aware, that synodal path led to different Bishops’ conferences excluding or approving adulterous unions, and finally a Vatican intervention which vindicated the wrong interpretation of Amoris Laetitia, calling that error “authentic Magisterium.” This was of course the occasion for the “First Dubia” to be sent to the Roman Pontiff, one of the early efforts by bishops to oppose these machinations. So it appears that the Holy Father is hoping for the same “mess” to result from the new synod.
But he continues. He expects bishops to report to him how they are implementing the Final Document at their ad limina visits. He then entrusts the implementation of the Synod to the “General Secretariat of the Synod together with the Dicasteries of the Roman Curia.”
So what are we to make of all this? By invoking the infamous family synods of 2014 and 2015 which led to Amoris Laetitia, this new note seems to bring the synodal journey – and this whole pontificate – full circle. As Julia Meloni has detailed, this is the dream of the St. Gallen Mafia: to transform the Church into a mob-rule democracy so that the enemies of Christ can agitate for their latest heresies and political causes, in the same way that Liberalism has overthrown Christ the King in most every nation since 1776. It would seem that this has now been accomplished by the Francis Pontificate, so that the Revolution can continue, world without end. Hence the fears of Cardinal Müller are realised here.
But we know how this story ends. When the enemies of Christ are assembled, who appears on the hill?
And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called faithful and true, and with justice doth he judge and fight. And his eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many diadems, and he had a name written, which no man knoweth but himself. And he was clothed with a garment sprinkled with blood; and his name is called, THE WORD OF GOD. And the armies that are in heaven followed him on white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth proceedeth a sharp two edged sword; that with it he may strike the nations. And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God the Almighty. And he hath on his garment, and on his thigh written: KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS (Rev. xix. 11-16)
Therefore: He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh at them: and the Lord shall deride them (Ps. ii. 4). Let us, then, laugh at the hubris of evil, and place our trust in the King of Kings. All will be well, and all manner of things will be well.
T. S. Flanders
Editor
St. Silvestri
[1] Nei diversi momenti del cammino del Sinodo da me avviato nell’ottobre 2021 ci siamo messi in ascolto di ciò che in questo tempo lo Spirito Santo dice alle Chiese.
[2] Ora il cammino prosegue nelle Chiese locali e nei loro raggruppamenti, facendo tesoro del Documento finale che il 26 ottobre scorso è stato votato e approvato dall’Assemblea in tutte le sue parti. Anch’io l’ho approvato e, firmandolo, ne ho disposto la pubblicazione, unendomi al “noi” dell’Assemblea che, attraverso il Documento finale, si rivolge al santo Popolo fedele di Dio.
[3] Il Documento finale partecipa del Magistero ordinario del Successore di Pietro (cfr. EC 18 § 1; CCC 892) e come tale chiedo che venga accolto. Esso rappresenta una forma di esercizio dell’insegnamento autentico del Vescovo di Roma che ha dei tratti di novità ma che in effetti corrisponde a ciò che ho avuto modo di precisare il 17 ottobre 2015, quando ho affermato che la sinodalità è la cornice interpretativa adeguata per comprendere il ministero gerarchico.
