The Extraordinary Synod: A Symposium

The sessions of the 1983 Synod on Penance came as near as anything probably could to shaking my confidence in the Holy Spirit’s guidance of the Church. Here were the leaders of the largest Christian denomination on Earth gathered together at a time when the sense of sin and the sense of a need for forgiveness had all but disappeared. Yet all the assembled bishops seemed able to do was reflect our general disorder with their contradictory and seemingly interminable interventions. Their final statement was a string of ritualistic denunciations of injustice, violence, racism, the arms race, and human rights violations followed by as flaccid a commentary as any in Church history. But when I read John Paul’s Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, the Papal Exhortation that followed from the Synod, I became reconciled to these clumsy and often exasperating consultations. The ritualistic denunciations introduced the Exhortation too, but only to begin a luminous exposition of Catholic teaching/

Early on in that Exhortation the Pope explains that moved “by an interior impulse which—I am certain—was obeying both an inspiration from on high and the appeals of humanity,” he called for the 1983 Synod on Penance. As we begin to think about November’s Extraordinary Synod on Vatican II, Catholics should keep in mind that this will not be merely an opportunity to lobby for certain ideas, but a manifestation of that Spirit which the current Pontiff has often said guides him in new undertakings like his many trips.

Even humanly speaking, the Extraordinary Synod is a wonderful idea. The Council encouraged experimentation. It is the nature of experiments that some of them succeed, some fail, and some produce results no one bargained for. No scientist would resent a collegial review of his work to see where it might be improved. The worries that this Synod will be a “witch hunt” reflect more the fears of those bringing the charge than the intent of the Holy Father (reports from Rome suggest that he refuses to dignify questions about witch hunts with an answer). He has spoken of reliving an extraordinary experience, exchanging information, and fostering a deeper insertion of Vatican II into the life of the Church.

According to a reliable source, NCCB President Bishop Malone and Cardinal Bernardin expect this Extraordinary Synod “to be the most important thing that will happen to the Church in their lives.” The U.S. Catholic Conference is already sending out suggested topics for articles to American theologians likely to help set the tone for the Synod.

And well they might if they hope to defend certain practices that have become commonplace in the Church in America. Anyone who reads the official documents of the Council and the key Church statements since cannot help but be struck by the consistency with which the Church has proclaimed renewal in theory. This, I think, is a sure sign of the Spirit working. Spiritus spirat ubi vult, but this cannot be translated: “He changes his mind as often as we do.” The diverse and contradictory practices claiming inspiration by the Holy Spirit are, as we are all aware, another matter entirely.

Part of the Church’s problem in communicating its remarkable consistency in teaching is the press coverage of events like the Synod. If the familiar pattern holds, there will be disagreement and debate in the sessions followed by a sound synthesis from the pen of the Holy Father. The press will exaggerate the differences of opinion, proclaim the Church deeply divided over many issues, and then underscore the Pope’s unsuccessful attempts to make Catholics follow his “conservative line.”

For me (who, Deo gratias, have no pastoral responsibilities) the ideal result of the Synod would be a document that would consist largely of definitions. For the United States all you would have to do is turn to the editorial pages of The National Catholic Reporter to find the key terms around which debate has crystallized: collegiality, subsidiarity, obedience, dialogue, dissent, “autonomous consciences,” etc. True, such definitions already exist in the Council documents, in subsequent Papal letters, in the new code of Canon Law, and so forth. And since these have not prevented our current disorders, a Synod document is unlikely to do so either. But at least the Synod would have driven some intellectual pilings into the intellectual bog that exists inside and outside the Church.

Does collegiality really mean that every nun who wants to run a state-funded abortion program in the Midwest has a right to advise and get equal hearing with the Pope? Do the rights of conscience mean that obedience to superiors is unnecessary whenever “mature, adult Christians with autonomous consciences who do not need permission from anyone” unilaterally decide so? When the opinions of Catholics have been so colored by the society in which they live that they are indistinguishable from those of non-Catholics, do these “Catholic” opinions constitute a normative sensus fidelium? There is matter enough in such questions for several synods.

It is unlikely that the Extraordinary Synod will address these issues in as direct a fashion as I would wish. But it is not what I or anyone else wishes that is important; what is important is the guidance of the Spirit. In spite of some claims that the spirit has spoken ambiguously since the Council, the teachings of the Church show otherwise. So will this Synod, though we may have to wait a long time for practical results. Many seem happy to find what they call Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform strains in the Church in America. But those who trust in the Spirit know He came to found not Orthodox, Conservative, or Reform, but the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

Author

  • Robert Royal

    Robert Royal is editor-in-chief of TheCatholicThing.org, and president of the Faith & Reason Institute in Washington, D.C. His most recent book is The God That Did Not Fail: How Religion Built and Sustains the West, now available in paperback from Encounter Books.

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