News this morning from Rome about a “shadow synod” that is already working on the outcome of the Synod on the Family before it even begins:
Italian journalist Marco Tosatti reveals that A SECRET PARALLEL SYNOD has been established in Rome, a cabal composed almost exclusively by Jesuits, with the occasional Argentinian presence (easy to guess who), to draft the necessary post-synodal documents to implement whatever the Pope wants to implement. And they will implement it, no matter what, as the secret committee to draft the Annulment reforms has shown; what everyone supposed was true in fact is true: the Synodal process is a sham.
***The always admirably well informed Marco Tosatti, who has refused to become a stealth spokesman for the pontificate and has kept his journalistic integrity — and, for this reason, has become, along with Sandro Magister, the best Italian religious correspondent in the current pontificate — reports today on the most recent machinations for 2015 “Synod on the Family”, which opens in a few days.
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Then, Tosatti adds his own exclusive information, which is quite explosive, considering that the last time a secret papal commission met, what we got was the most authoritarian canon law reforms in the history of the Church, in violation of all understanding of the proper boundaries of papal power and establishing de facto Catholic divorce under the guise of easy acccess to “annulments”:
In this context [that is, of the procedural changes mentioned by Edward Pentin], news has arrived to us for about twelve days that around thirty people, almost all of them Jesuits, with the occasional Argentinian, are working on the themes on the Synod, in a very reserved way, under the coordinatin of Father Antonio Spadaro, the director of Civiltà Cattolica [the official journal of the Holy See], who spends a long time in Santa Marta, in consultation with the Pope.
The discretion in the works extends also to the Jesuits of the same House, the villa of Civiltà Cattolica, Villa Malta, on the Pincio [Hill], where part of the work is done. One possibility is that the “task force” works to provide the Pope the instruments for an eventual post-synodal document on the theme of the Eucharist to the remarried divorced, on cohabiting [couples], and same-sex couples.
Go to Rorate for the rest. There’s a reason “fait accompli” is a term often tossed around in regards to the Synod. We’ll keep an eye on this story and tell you more as it develops.
Steve Skojec is the Founding Publisher of OnePeterFive.com. He received his BA in Communications and Theology from Franciscan University of Steubenville in 2001. His commentary has appeared in The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, Crisis Magazine, EWTN, Huffington Post Live, The Fox News Channel, Foreign Policy, and the BBC. Steve and his wife Jamie have eight children. You can find more of his writing at his Substack, The Skojec File.
How do we fight this sinister attempt to bring radical changes to the teachings of Christ. Man cannot change the Word of Christ. I know your answers will be to have Faith the God will protect His Church. I would guess he would want us to do something, yes, prayer, I know.
Expose them and keep on exposing them. They work in the darkness. Shine the light. Over and over again.
Can we say, ¡Ya está en el saco! (“It’s in the bag!”)
We are like (?) sheep without a shepherd.
I cannot fathom what things will look like by the end of this month and what decisions I may have to make.
Be of good cheer, good Father! Perhaps you missed that the word ‘bombshell’ in the led is in scare quotes, which is usually an indication that the word is not to be taken seriously.
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Indeed, the article contains nothing that is either surprising or newsworthy.
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We have not been left orphans; the Holy Ghost still guides His Church.
I don’t think any of the readers and commenters here think that the Holy Ghost does not guide His Church.
I think Fr J’s concern is that, in a month or so from now, he and all of us may have to decide exactly who is, and who is not, a member of His Church.
If there is a major schism, and many of the hierarchy formally leave the Church by way of manifest and unrepentant heresy, then their subordinate Priests and lay faithful will have to decide which way they will go. It could come down to a parish-by-parish / diocese-by-diocese schism.
The neighboring parish across town may go in a different direction than yours, and one of them will be the Catholic Church, and the other, not.
It’s not just Kasper and Daneels etc. who may formally leave the Church (while claiming to be loyal sons of the Church, and dressed up in their garb to boot). It could affect every member of the Church, who will have to decide between the Catholic faith, or following some heretical Bishop or Priest, who, while appearing to hold a position of authority, is in reality a schismatic heretic.
It’s now time for a bloodletting in the Church. The disease of modernism needs to go, and that may not happen without pain and confusion, schism and turmoil. This is perhaps how the Holy Ghost wills it.
No. Not gonna happen. I’m sorry, but “It’s now time for a bloodletting in the Church.”? Really? Is there some sort of “Battlefield” style Catholic video game out called “Avingnon Papacy: The Revenge of the Peasants” that I’m not aware of?
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1. I’ve been listening to schism predictions in the Church all my life. The communists and crypto-commies were going to split the Church. The feminists were going to split the Church. The pro-choicers were going to split the Church. Still hasn’t happened. Could there be a schism in the Church in the U.S.? Sure. Is it likely? Not so much.
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2. For Catholics where the Church is will always be obvious and visible. Stop worrying so much about “Paul” or “Apollos” and focus on following Christ. His yoke is easy and burden light. No need for any of this silly “Come the revolution” talk.
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3. Logic check: it’s not actually possible to “formally leave the Church (While claiming to be loyal sons…).” Formally leaving the Church means making a public declaration that one no longer holds the Catholic Church to be the ordinary means of salvation. Most people who leave Catholicism do so fairly informally. And while we’re at it, I’m pretty sure that you can’t leave the Church by “manifest and unrepentant heresy.” A heretic is still a member of the Church. If you leave, you become an apostate, and if you take a bunch of folks with you, that’s schism.
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4.Which, as I mentioned. Is unlikely to happen in your lifetime. You (and I) would both be better off working out our own salvation in fear and trembling, listening to our own pastors and faithful to our own bishops rather than worrying about people we’re unlikely ever to meet and situations over which we have no control. Pray!
Thank you for your reply. You have a good case, but we simply don’t know for sure how this will play out.
We are in unchartered territory at this point in history. I hope it turns out well.
By God’s grace, I am working out my salvation with fear and trembling. That does not rule out watching the events high, high up in the Church – events which practically speaking, are beyond anything you or I can do about it – and trying to work out a possible scenario, and what we may have to do about it, way down where you and I are in the scheme of things.
Until recently, I did not really care what was happening way “up there” – I just got on with trying to do what is necessary for salvation, and trying to get others around me to aim for Heaven too.
But times have changed in an unprecedented manner, and we need to honestly acknowledge that fact and be ready for whatever happens, even if the whole thing turns out to be a fizzer.
I appreciate your measured and serious response. Still, we must be very careful to stick to facts and reasonable assessments and avoid giving in to suspicion, rage and despite.
In a sense, we are always living in uncharted territory, and times are always changing. Yet the Church remains. If you haven’t read much history I urge you to do so: some of what the Church has weathered would make our current concerns look trivial indeed!
You are right – we are always in unchartered territory. That thought went through my mind as I was typing earlier.
I don’t know all of Church History, but am familiar with the incredible stories of bad popes and bishops. I sometimes shudder to think of where they might be right now.
I forget who said it, but someone pointed out somewhere that it is not the good, holy popes and bishops that prove the indefectibility of the Church, but the really bad ones!
Since these times are trivial compared to some of the things that have gone on in Church history, then the speculations going around the traps about what may happen in the near future seem all the more plausible.
I will be keeping an ear to the ground, and will be ready to do whatever I have to, even if it comes to nothing. I don’t think it hurts to do so, as long as it is not just to satisfy some vain curiosity and thirst for drama and intrigue. I am very blessed to be in easy access to a good priest at the local parish, and also the traditional Mass and sacraments provided by a good priestly fraternity nearby. I thank God often for that. It is good to talk to you here. I read here often, but rarely put up a comment.
In my diocese (which will remain anonymous), we underwent the full brunt of the recent homosexual scandals. Our bishop hid sodomite predators in another diocese as a chancery official, and then encouraged a lavender-mafia after his arrival in my own. I do not know and do not care to know if he himself was a sodomite (mercifully he is now retired). His criminal activity – for which he was never punished in any way — was enough to make life miserable for Catholics. My diocese has never fully recovered from his presence here.
Why do I recount all this? Basically it’s to probe a bit what Reader Y says about being faithful to our own bishops as a remedy for the current ecclesiastical legerdemain taking place at the Synod. His is very good advice if one’s ordinary is true blue, but in many places that is simply not the case. Europe, for example, offers many of the faithful leaders like Danneels, and all of us here in the US remember the days of stalwarts like Rembert Weakland and Roger Mahoney. What to do in those dioceses?
My point is simple: it is no longer necessary that a rebel repeat Luther’s 1517-1521 coup de thèâtre to totally disrupt the Church; today’s heretics, in fact, seem to have discovered it is better NOT to lay their cards on the table, but rather to simply subvert the Church from within.
1517.
Well, a Shadow Synod has been in place well before last year’s meeting, as was obvious from what was reported at the time and from the comments made by Burke and others. This latest news is more confirmation, as if any were needed, that these little gnomes have been working tirelessly for months if not years for this moment.
What terrifies me, obviously, is whether God will allow it to happen, or if He will take some sort of direct or indirect action to stop these destroyers, like He has done in the past on several notable occasions (the story of the miraculously thwarted poisoning of St Pius V comes to mind).
The constant bombshells are starting to resemble a full on artillery barrage.
The heretical Jesuits have long had their own church of ‘inculturation’, ‘collectivism’ and spiritual ‘evolution’ of mankind as a species. They are ridiculous and JPII failed the church when he did not suppress them. Our parish priest is a naif, although old enough to be wiser, and he idolizes PF like a tittering teen age school girl. No money from me to the diocese or Catholic Atheistic Charities & etc…..
I read through the catechism a few years ago. The other I was doing some apologetic related research and I happened, by chance, on 675. It didn’t seem all that meaningful a decade ago.