Bizarre move: Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople writes article for L'Osservatore Romano endorsing Amoris Laetitia.Revisiting the contrasting positions of Moscow and Constantinople at the Synod of 2015

In what is surely one of the most bizarre twists in the debate on Amoris Laetitia, Pariarch Bartholomew, Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, has penned an article unabashedly endorsing that exhortation. While it is no secret that the Kasperite and liberal wing have partly taken inspiration from Eastern Orthodox praxis, that L'Osservatore Romano would go to the extent of publishing an article from Bartholomew in support of AL will only exacerbate the concerns of those who do see this document as intending a departure from perennial Catholic teaching. 

The full text of the editorial, in English, can be found here: "God is Love (1 John 4:8)".

The Synod explained via new mediaAn epic Catholic rant and a look back to see the present

The Synod of Sin has concluded. For some perspective to understand the traditional position -- from a non-traditional medium -- we bring you two helpful tools.

(UPDATED) The Triumph of Ambiguity - The Synod Final Relatio's most controversial passages: 69-71, 75, 84-86 (English translation)

The six most controversial passages in the Final Relatio (so far) are nos. 70-71, 75, and 84-86, which also got the fewest "yes" votes and the most "no" votes in the entire document. Paragraphs 84-86 (on the divorced and remarried) got 187, 178 and 190 "yes" votes and 72, 80 and 64 "no" votes respectively. The minimum number of votes for a passage to be included in the Final Relatio was 177, which means that no. 85 squeaked by by just one vote past the minimum. 

Passage 85 (made up of two paragraphs) is special; it quotes John Paul II's Familiaris Consortio # 84 but omits the part where communion for the "divorced-and-remarried" is forbidden. It also opens a path to doctrinal devolution by speaking of the "orientations of the bishop" with regards to the "divorced and remarried". 

We have updated this post to include translations of all these six, plus no. 69 which provides necessary context for 70-71. Our thanks to blogger Vox Cantoris for his valuable help on par. 69-75. We have highlighted the potential flashpoints in the passages below.

Our initial commentary can be found at the end of this post. Extended commentary on these passages and on the Pope's slashing speech against conservatives -- an obvious sign of frustration and a terrifying glimpse into his theology (since when was it possible to oppose the "letter" and "spirit" of CATHOLIC doctrine, and to defend one but not the other?) will follow on Monday.

 Complex situations

69. The sacrament of marriage as a faithful and indissoluble union between a man and a woman called to accept one another and to welcome life, is a great grace for the human family. The Church has the joy and the duty to announce this grace to every person and in every context. She feels that today, in an even more urgent way, She has the responsibility of making the baptized rediscover how the grace of God works in their lives - even in the most difficult situations - in order to lead them to the fullness of the sacrament. The Synod, while appreciating and encouraging families who honor the beauty of Christian marriage, intends to promote the pastoral discernment of situations in which the reception of this gift has difficulty in being appreciated, or in which it is compromised in various ways. Keeping dialogue open with these faithful [people] in order to enable the maturing of a coherent openness to the Gospel of marriage and the family in its fullness, is a grave responsibility. Pastors should identify the elements that may favor evangelization and the human and spiritual growth of those entrusted to their care by the Lord.

UPDATE: Final Report of Synod published.(Original post) Will the final Synod document have hidden time-bombs on the issue of the "divorced-and-remarried"?If Familiaris Consortio can't be overturned, then it will be distorted

The Final Report of the Synod is now available in Italian only:

Synod15 - Relazione Finale del Sinodo dei Vescovi al Santo Padre Francesco (24 ottobre 2015), 24.10.2015

[Our translation of paragraphs 84-86 of the "Relazione Finale" and our commentary on these, and on the Pope's speech, are located in a separate post: The Triumph of Ambiguity - The Synod's Final Relatio, numbers 84-86)]

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[Original posting time: 10/24/15 3:30 PM]

The final document of the Synod is expected to be published this evening, Rome time. No word yet on whether it will be only in Italian, or if translations are to be made available at the same time. Once the document is out we will try to post relevant passages as soon as possible. 

However we already have an idea about its contents from the official Vatican press briefing today, where Cardinals Schönborn and Damasceno Assis spoke. 

It might be protested that these two Cardinals are more or less on the "progressive" side, and therefore have an interest in twisting or distorting the presentation of the final document. Our response is that if the document can be interpreted in a heterodox-friendly manner, then that is a major issue even if a first reading of it is friendly to orthodoxy. We already saw this happen with the Synod Instrumentum Laboris (henceforth referred to as IL), which at its release was largely hailed as a "conservative" document, only for its progressivist time-bombs to become more evident upon a closer reading of the text. 

DANGER AHEAD. Synod document drafting committee member: Familiaris Consortio? "Circumstances have changed!" Divorced-and-remarried, "decentralization" still on the agenda

Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai, one of ten mostly-liberal prelates assigned by Pope Francis to the drafting committee for the final Synod relation, has unexpectedly emerged in recent days as a champion for greater "openness" to homosexuals. His comments in today's Vatican press conference are true to form, and given his role in drafting the Synod document hints at something that can be manipulated in favor of Kasperite and liberal concerns. 

It is telling that in speaking of decentralization he, and other champions of this idea, repeatedly refer to the problem of polygamy in Africa as an example of issues that need to be dealt with by local bishops' conferences. One has to ask if this is an agreed-on liberal talking-point to humiliate the African bishops into endorsing the "decentralization" option. 

Op-Ed: "The Failed Francis Pontificate - Finding another Path for the Church: may Pope Pacelli help us!"

We are very honored to post this new article by a very wise, knowledgeable, and highly influential cleric, writing under the pen name of don Pio Pace.

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Father Pio Pace

I visited in these past few days the tomb of Pius XII, in the crypt of the Vatican Basilica. My thoughts often go back to Pius XII, this great moralist pope, in this month of October 2015, in which takes place this strange Synod of the Family, during which we have spoken only of adulterous couples and homosexual couples. During which the doctrine de fide et moribus has been brought up for debate, as if the Church had not defined it already.

The Most Dangerous Part - Language Group Reports on Third Part of Instrumentum Laboris

English First (4  ANGLICUS groups), then French (3 GALLICUS groups), Italian (3 ITALICUS groups), Spanish (2 HIBERICUS groups), German (GERMANICUS).

Emphases ours. 

[Update (3 PM GMT): Only a small minority of the circoli minori are either favorable to the Kasper position or use language that can be interpreted in its favor. Most of the circoli are clearly unfavorable (Anglicus A, C, Gallicus B, etc) or simply ignore it. For some reason some commentators are saying the opposite, but this confirms the huge defeat of the Kasper thesis. Of course there are many, many shadows; the defeat of the Kasperites on the level of the circoli minori should not cause any complacency or relaxation in our vigilance.]

Relatio – Circulus Anglicus “A”

Moderator: Card. PELL George

Relator: S.E. Mons. KURTZ Joseph Edward

Huge Kasperite defeats and liberal Trojan horses on contraception:Why orthodox Catholics should remain vigilant over the Synod

Yesterday we reported that an overwhelming majority of Synod Fathers have signified their opposition to the "Kasper proposal" to give communion to the "divorced and remarried". La Croix's report on yesterday's Synod proceedings (Les évêques restent timides dans leurs propositions) gives a more precise number: only one out of four bishops were in favor. This statistic emerged in the course of the voting in the circuli minori over the proposed amendments or modi (at least 600, according to La Croix) to the third and most controversial part of the "Instrumentum Laboris", the part that (among other things) deals with divorced couples.

One out of four, or 25%, is smaller than even the "35%" support for Kasper's proposal that was estimated by Abp. Mark Coleridge of Brisbane earlier during the Synod, and the "three out of ten working groups" who supported the proposal in the Synod of 2014 according to Cardinal Pell. If anything, this Synod seems to have resulted in a decrease of support for Kasper. This is a crushing blow, we repeat, a crushing blow to the position of Cardinal Kasper and Co, stealthily supported by the highest echelons in the Church since February 2014, and even earlier, and by Synod manipulations since before the organization of the 2014 Synod. Well done, Synod fathers!

THE SYNOD: The decentralization of the Church offends the Faith and common sense

Roberto de Mattei

IL FOGLIO

October 20, 2015

Catholic Teaching on Marriage and Divorce - the Bible, Our Lord, and the Constant Teaching, simple and to the point

Catholic teaching on marriage – theological background

a guest-post by John Lamont

The subject of Catholic marriage is now being hotly debated at the current session of the Synod on the Family. It is thus helpful to have available an account of the essentials of Scriptural teaching on this subject, which this article will attempt to provide.

The starting point for this account is the text of Deuteronomy 24;1-4:

Polish bishops: liberal Synod fathers want to change doctrine.

One of the most pernicious slogans used both by the Synod liberals and the Synod's apologists is that "doctrine will not be changed, only the discipline". It is a slogan calculated to lull Catholics into complacency -- after all, whatever happens, the doctrine is not gonna change, right? It is a slogan, a talking point, that reveals how well the liberals understand the modern Catholic mentality, with its unwarrantedly sharp distinction if not de facto divorce between "doctrine" and "discipline", between "Tradition" (big T) and "tradition" (small t), between the "letter" and the "spirit" of laws and doctrines, and between the "essence" of Church teachings and the "language" in which these are expressed. 

Thankfully, Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki, President of the Polish Bishops' Conference and acknowledged mouthpiece of the Polish hierarchy, has published a short note (October 17)  on the website of the Polish Bishops' Conference, succinctly exposing this slogan, this mantra, for what it is: a deception, a lie. (Our thanks to Toronto Catholic Witness for the translation). 

 Archbishop Gądecki: they are trying to push through changes in doctrine

Doctrinal "devolution" to the bishops' conferences? Francis already endorsed it in 2013. UPDATE: Francis' most important speech so far on "decentralization" -- and his intentions for the Synod

[UPDATE 10/19/2015 2:30 AM GMT]: For the record: Edward Pentin has posted a complete "working translation" of Francis' watershed speech on his desire to see a more decentralized and "Synodal" Church that "begin(s) with the people and their everyday problems" and for which the "conversion of the papacy" is central.

We will not dedicate more time to commenting on the theme of decentralization. It is enough to say that so long as the good bishops and cardinals who have been attacking the proposals for "decentralization" shy away from naming the true patron of the proposal -- the Pope himself -- they are only avoiding the problem, instead of addressing it. 

Equally important as the "decentralization" aspect is Francis' assertion that it is the "flock" that is "discern(ing) the new ways that the Lord is revealing to the Church", which he uses to justify the controversial "consultation" that took place in the run-up to the Synod. Remember that it was this process of consultation that the German and Swiss bishops (and powerful lay groups such as the German Zentralkomitee der deutschen Katholiken) used to collect support for far-reaching reforms in the teachings of the Church on family life and sexual morality.

Trial of St. Joan of Arc: History brings clarity with what's happening at the Synod

The following is a sermon delivered today, on the 21st Sunday after Pentecost, by a traditional mission priest. We provide you with the text of the sermon below, and you may click here to listen to the audio.

"... this second synod broke nearly every law known at the time, both canonical and civil, on how trials are conducted. Methods used against Joan included among other things, packing the court, confusion tactics and false contradicting statements, as well as a sort of shadow synod."

“There was a man in the land of Hus, whose name was Job, simple and upright and fearing God; whom Satan besought that he might tempt: and power was given him from the Lord over his possessions and his flesh; and he destroyed all his substance and his children, and wounded his flesh also with a grievous ulcer”— Offertory Antiphon

There was a man named Job. St. Zeno of Verona (d. 380) and other fathers say Job is a type of Christ. St. Gregory the Great goes one step further in stating: “Holy Job is a type of the Church.” In other words, Job acts as a prefigurement of the future Passion of the Christ as well as His Mystical Body, the Church. We are now in one of the Job-moments of our Holy Mother, the Church.

Recall that a TYPE is a historical person, thing or event that really happened, but, at the same time, mysteriously prefigures a future reality that is bigger than itself. Our God is the Lord and Master of all History. Only He can work things out at one moment in time… such that it foreshadows another later moment. This is especially seen in the link between the Old and New Testaments. Listen to the Church Father St. Melito of Sardis: “It is [Christ] who endured every kind of suffering in all those who foreshadowed Him. In Abel He was slain, in Isaac bound, in Jacob exiled, in Joseph sold, in Moses exposed to die. He was sacrificed in the Passover Lamb, persecuted in David, dishonored in the prophets.” And so on with the entire Old Testament. (By the way, there are no such types to be found in any other writings. They are not in the Koran… nor in the book of Mormon. What does this mean? We are in the right place!)

"The backstory to the 13 Cardinals' Explosive Letter and what it means - and What's Going to Happen at the Synod and in the Church"

Antonio Socci

‘Libero’

October 14 2015

For the record: developments in the world of Tradition

1) As reported in the local newspaper Prima Pagina Reggio on September 22, 2015,

The Ridiculous Synod: The Sacrilege that made the Synod Hall Weep

Update (Oct. 16): the story told (or made up) by a Synod Father sounded like a Mexican telenovela because it really was one! It was told by Bp. Alonso Gerardo Garza Trevino, of Piedras Negras.
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We do not know if any of this is true. We do not know if the original story is true - the unidentified Synod participant who may have told it may well have made it up. We do not know if it truly caused "commotion" in the assembly (other than perhaps the horror for the sacrilege of how Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament is treated in the narrator's diocese). If it is true that the "commotion" was "general", or if only the Spanish-language spokesman of the Holy See Press Office (Chicago priest Fr. Manuel Dorantes, the Spanish-language counterpart of Fr. Rosica) was "moved", and decided to share his own "emotion". What is true is that Fr. Dorantes told this story in the official press conference today.

Socci: "At the End of the Synod, Francis may impose his will, Diktak-style -- but Bergoglism is foundering everywhere"

[The Argentinian War Machine with the German Engine is Stuck in the Mud]

Antonio Socci

‘Libero’

October 11, 2015

"Is there still a sense of sin among the Synod Fathers?"

 Roberto de Mattei

Corrispondenza Romana

 October 14, 2015

"Is the Pope asking forgiveness for the scandal of the 'Gay Synod'?" - or was it an apology at all?

Synod closes this Wednesday: Pope in a side chat with
unofficial spokesman and Civiltà Cattolica director Fr Antonio Spadaro SJ
(Photo by Matteo Matzuzzi)

Explosive Revelation: Miniature Shadow Synod being held with Pope and outside guests every day at Santa Marta

Buried within the article published today in the Catholic German newspaper Die Tagespost is the incredible news that helps to explain both the amazing way in which rules are changed by the hour at the 2015 Synod, and the constant leaks of threats and papal opinions. Every day a kind of miniature Shadow Synod meets at the Domus Sanctae Marthae with the Pope (including some Synod Fathers and some outside guests) to decide what steps should be taken at the Synod.

Maybe not even the author realized how explosive the revelation he included nonchalantly in his piece below is: there is no method, rules, or roadmap in the Synod of Bishops, just a will to reach a specific end, no matter what means are used.

No Complete Clarity

Die Tagespost

October 13, 2015, p. 5
by Guido Horst

Rome: Not very much leaks out of the Synod – and it is still an open question, just how its end and concluding word of the pope will look like

[Excerpts:]

[…] Who says what, how much the two fronts clash against each other – and nobody so far denied that these fronts exist – what happens substantially in the Synod Hall – all these things are not getting into the public. […] Only in the coming days, will it come out how many Synod Fathers wish which changes to the Church's practice. As Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila, one of the four delegate presidents of the Synod, said a few days ago in front of journalists: the three hundred bishops did not come together in order not to decide upon anything. The uncertainty about how the outcome will be of these three-week long negotiations is being heightened by the fact that in the guest house of the Vatican, Santa Marta, there takes place a kind of 'Shadow Synod': Pope Francis meets with participants of the Synod and with outside guests in order to speak with them individually. In the end, it is up to the pope to make a decision about the still open questions and to communicate his decision to the whole Church in a concluding text. That, however, is up to now the greatest riddle which underlies the whole Synod. […]