Thinking all this over, I’ve just realised something. What we are witnessing is undoubtedly a coup d’etat at the highest levels of Church government, or as Michael Voris put it, a revolution (in the French Revolution sense of the word). The Relatio is revolutionary. It cannot be equated with Catholic teaching in its controversial points. The realisation, though, is this: the majority of Synod fathers are going to cave in. In fact, there will be ***no ***organised and effective episcopal opposition to the proposals of the *Relatio *that have caused such a furor in the Catholic world.
The Synod fathers are under tremendous pressure, from below, from around and from above.
From below: the survey initiated by the Vatican and similar surveys shows that most Catholics throughout the world with the exception of Africa reject traditional Church teaching on many of the subjects covered by the Relatio.
From around: secular society backs the controversial *Relatio *proposals one hundred per cent. In our interconnected, hypercommunicative world, that means huge leverage.
From above: everyone knows that the drive for these proposals has come from the very top of the Church’s hierarchy. The prelates advocating them are emboldened by the knowledge that they have the support of the Chair of Peter itself.
The Synod bishops and cardinals hence have no support base, and most of them will not stand up and be counted as individuals. To do so means rebellion, and everyone knows where that leads. They are going to crumble like tissue paper. I am almost certain - and I hope I make a fool of myself and am proven wrong - that the *Relatio *will stand in its present form (with a few, minor alterations that will not substantially alter its message) and become the framework, the map, of the 2015 Synod.
After all, Catholic doctrine is not being ***directly ***attacked. Nobody is saying that homosexuals can marry in church, or that divorced and remarried Catholics are in a sacramental union. The Deposit of the Faith is untouched. It is just going to be put into a sealed chest and gently shoved aside, whilst the Church’s everyday practice towards divorced remarrieds, homosexuals, et al. becomes something very different.
Arius is indeed in town.
