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Unprecedented gathering of Catholic reform groups warn of ‘Fake News’ in the working document for this October’s Synod and the abuse of power
Does Pope Francis share the disappointment in the Synod on Synodality currently experienced by Catholic reform groups? In the public penitential liturgy planned by the Pope himself for 1 October, the day before the Synod re-commences, the list of sins to be confessed will include sins against synodality (or the lack of listening).
Spirit Unbounded Companion, Dr Luca Badini Confalonieri (Executive Director of the Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research) voices widely held incredulity with the central statement of the Synod working document (Instrumentum Laboris).
… “In a synodal Church, the responsibility of the bishop, the college of bishops and the Roman Pontiff to make decisions is inalienable since it is rooted in the hierarchical structures of the Church established by Christ.”
Badini says: ‘Such a tired, clericalist interpretation would not pass muster with any serious New Testament scholar today. It’s not just that it lacks biblical evidence: it directly contradicts it. It’s Vatican-sponsored fake news. In the gospel of Matthew Jesus explicitly mandates that the entire community shall be the highest and final authority for adjudicating disputes about “sin”, and he concluded: “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matt 18:15-20). As the late NT scholar and foremost expert on Matthew’s gospel Eduard Schweizer once put it:
“In [Matt] 18:15–18 everyone is involved on a par with everyone else when the community ‘binds’ or ‘looses’ him. {…] In the whole ‘church order’ in chap. 18 there is not the slightest indication of a specially emphasized ministry to which certain things are reserved that not every community member can do.”
Reading the New Testament, it is not difficult to notice that the earliest disciples of Jesus took the advice of their teacher seriously. It was the entire community of disciples who selected first one of the Twelve, as a replacement to Judas Iscariot (Acts 1:15–26), and then the Seven men elected to look after the Greek speaking members among them (Acts 6:1–6): and it did so despite the fact that the Eleven/Twelve were there!
Again, it was the entire community of disciples in Jerusalem who assembled to decide the most momentous doctrinal issue of the time (Acts 15:12, 22). And Paul agrees with a disciplinary decision taken by majority by the assembly of Christians in Corinth (2 Cor. 6:2).
‘Synodality has undoubtedly let the genie out of the bottle,’ says co-founder of Spirit Unbounded, Penelope Middelboe. ‘The faithful – both lay and clergy – understand clearly what matters. If the hierarchy shuts us out after all this time, it’s up to us to follow up on the scriptural commission of equality and our duty for shared responsibility in this church.’
Spirit Unbounded is a platform for 48 umbrella reform groups around the world. You can find our most recent paper on Authority and the Abuse of Power in the Church authored by an international group led by Kevin Liston, co-Chair of ACCCR, the foremost Australasian umbrella group of reform movements. Anyone concerned by the fact that the architects of the Instrumentum Laboris have shut the door on synodality themselves by refusing to share discernment with women and lay men can read Liston’s paper in English, German, Italian and Spanish.
You can access action in Rome this October by Spirit Unbounded Companions here https://spiritunbounded.org/2024-events
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