Wait, let me get this right in my head. I was under the understanding that a MAGESTERIAL document was NOT going to be produced by a parliamentary vote (consisting of a mixed group of lay, religious, clergy, and Bishops). I thought that this document would be used by Pope Francis to aid him in his drafting of his own apostolic exhortation.
Wait, let me get this right in my head. I was under the understanding that a MAGESTERIAL document was NOT going to be produced by a parliamentary vote (consisting of a mixed group of lay, religious, clergy, and Bishops). I thought that this document would be used by Pope Francis to aid him in his drafting of his own apostolic exhortation.
Instead we are getting a magesterial document that has been produced by a group consisting of members, many of whom hold views contrary to established doctrine, that generated the document in discussions behind closed doors, sworn to secrecy, and shoved out with a popular vote and a papal rubber stamp. I feel so synodal now I don't know if I'll ever recover.
You cannot take a document drafted for one purpose and then declare that it is a different kind of document. The Synod participants were working under great time pressure to finish the final report and the doctrinal chaos within their ranks must have wiped out any chance of clear unambiguous statements. Any orthodox recommendation on anything would probably have upset some participants. Hence the gibberish in para 27 which probably no one understands. A magisterial document would in theory be carefully drafted and redrafted so that people might have a chance of understanding and learning from it.
I don't think it's a great idea, but I don't see any reason why the pope /can't/ do this. He can use ghost writers, he can get other people's input on whatever he writes, he hopefully has the whole draft and read through it - the part that makes it magisterial is the Pope putting it out as such in his name, not whether he wrote the words himself. (I'd feel weirder about the whole thing if he had announced in advance - without knowing the content or the vote - that the document would be part of his magisterial teaching regardless of what it ended up saying)
Wait, let me get this right in my head. I was under the understanding that a MAGESTERIAL document was NOT going to be produced by a parliamentary vote (consisting of a mixed group of lay, religious, clergy, and Bishops). I thought that this document would be used by Pope Francis to aid him in his drafting of his own apostolic exhortation.
Instead we are getting a magesterial document that has been produced by a group consisting of members, many of whom hold views contrary to established doctrine, that generated the document in discussions behind closed doors, sworn to secrecy, and shoved out with a popular vote and a papal rubber stamp. I feel so synodal now I don't know if I'll ever recover.
You cannot take a document drafted for one purpose and then declare that it is a different kind of document. The Synod participants were working under great time pressure to finish the final report and the doctrinal chaos within their ranks must have wiped out any chance of clear unambiguous statements. Any orthodox recommendation on anything would probably have upset some participants. Hence the gibberish in para 27 which probably no one understands. A magisterial document would in theory be carefully drafted and redrafted so that people might have a chance of understanding and learning from it.
I don't think it's a great idea, but I don't see any reason why the pope /can't/ do this. He can use ghost writers, he can get other people's input on whatever he writes, he hopefully has the whole draft and read through it - the part that makes it magisterial is the Pope putting it out as such in his name, not whether he wrote the words himself. (I'd feel weirder about the whole thing if he had announced in advance - without knowing the content or the vote - that the document would be part of his magisterial teaching regardless of what it ended up saying)