Transformers

 

Our parish bulletin is dutifully pushing the “synod on synodality.” It publishes an appeal, not written by any local pastor: “Our Church is currently working to grow as a dynamic, synodal church. … Around the world, we are asked to reflect on this question: ‘HOW can we be a synodal Church in Mission?’ In this transformation, are we open to the new and ready to let go of what has been?”

The obvious answer is, “no.” The entire point of religion is to put us in touch with eternal truth. Eternal truth cannot change. Any change is necessarily a decent into error—unless the entire enterprise has been a sham from the beginning.

All ecumenical councils can do is to discern and to clarify what is understood to have always been church teaching, if and when some issue arises. Change or letting go is never on the docket.

Vatican II may look like a departure; and it was, and remains, deeply unsettling to many. But it is conventionally understood as concerning itself only with the liturgy, not with faith or morals, and to be properly interpreted according to “the hermeneutic of continuity.”

So what can a synod on synodality legitimately consider? The liturgy? Perhaps, for example, exploiting improvements in technology to feature sermons presented on large screens during the mass, from the very best preachers and expositors, instead of by the local pastor. Perhaps a return to the Latin mass. Perhaps administrative issues like how to keep the Vatican solvent, or what should be required for an institution to call itself “Catholic.” But this does not seem to call for an elaborate consultative process. It seems more like a matter for experts in a given field.

And none of this seems to warrant the term “transformation.” The last thing a faithful Catholic wants is for the Church to “transform.” 

And what sort of transformation would cause the Church to grow in membership? After all, there are already many non-Catholic alternatives out there. Does the world really need another non-Catholic alternative? Is it crying for it?