Letters from the Synod: October 24 [CH-UK]

[Catholic_Herald]

Reports and commentary, from Rome and elsewhere, on the XIV Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops

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[FollowChrist34]

So let’s begin with Fact Number One, which is that Pope Francis is, as he has often said, a son of the Church who believes and teaches what the Church believes and teaches. As Sandro Magister himself points out in his article on the “media synod” effectively trumping the real Synod, “Between the Synod of 2014 and this one of 2015, Francis chalked up more than fifty public statements perfectly in line with the traditional doctrine of the Church: against ‘gender’ ideology, against the divorced and remarried who ‘demand’ communion, and even in favor of an old forgotten virtue like chastity before marriage. ‘Catholic doctrine is not to be touched,’ he repeated at the opening of the Synod.”

These facts don’t fit comfortably within the “narrative” of a non-judgmental, social-reformer pope with a populist touch. The interesting question is, why? Is it because those who live inside the cartoon Pope “narrative” refuse to concede that orthodox Catholics can be compassionate, merciful, committed to the service and empowerment of the poor – even good neighbours whom you might like to have over for a beer to observe such cultural wonders (or signs of the Apocalpyse; you choose) as a Chicago Cubs/New York Mets National League championship series? Is it because the Rohrschached Pope is more useful for advancing certain political or ecclesiastical causes than the real Pope?

To deny that there are “sacred givens” in the life of the Church is a prescription for endless deconstruction, of the sort that has eviscerated the once-great Christian communities of liberal Protestantism throughout the North Atlantic world. To oppose that deconstruction is not “fundamentalism.” It’s a reaffirmation of the truth the Second Vatican Council taught in the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum: Revelation is real, and the Church is accountable to it.

:yup:

Thanks George.