"It notes that a proposal has emerged from the synod process to recognize тАЬepiscopal conferences as ecclesial subjects endowed with doctrinal authority, assuming socio-cultural diversity within the framework of a multifaceted Church, and favoring the appreciation of liturgical, disciplinary, theological, and spiritual expressions appropriate to different socio-cultural contexts.тАЭ "
I suggest this says that each local Church ("episcopal conference" can decide its own morality, what is evil and what is good. Not nothing.
And yet that's not in fact what it says, because you have to do a substitution to even try and make that point.
Francis sucks, his Synod on Synodality sucks, but let's criticize it for where it actually sucks. He's made clear time and time again (including in the official document starting this process just a few months ago) that synods were CONSULTATIVE in nature, and that any such body, while having doctrinal authority, did not have authority over doctrine. That's been a pretty consistent message.
Francis has explicitly rejected the idea that such a conference could decide its own morality, warning the German bishops that Germany already had a Protestant church and not to imitate it too much.
And, in case you haven't been paying attention, to really drive the point home, Francis has stripped almost all discussion of hotbed issues from the synod (and by extension lesser bodies) and relegated them to study groups, where they will die by inertia.
The issue with the synod is nothing is actually defined. Nice statements like "bodies have bishops have doctrinal authority' are certainly true (our eastern brothers understand this quite well) but without expressly saying what that authority is, AND IS NOT, does it matter? Or is it just window dressing?
For years Francis has played a game of strategic ambiguity on this process, thinking by saying nothing, he advances his agenda. Despite the fact that every synod has left with Francis either being defeated (synod on the family) or being forced to back down and get mad at bishops for discussing what he told them to discuss(Synod on the Amazon).
Christ's admonition about letting your yes be a yes and no be a no has never been more apparent in its wisdom than in the age of Francis.
See para 32 of Pope Francis' Evangelii Gaudium from 2013. It seems to be suggesting the same idea about authority for Bishops' Conferences - that each would have doctrinal authority. Would each country then set its own doctrine? Is any sane Catholic even considering this?
"Yet this desire has not been fully realized, since a juridical status of episcopal conferences which would see them as subjects of specific attributions, including genuine doctrinal authority, has not yet been sufficiently elaborated"
> episcopal conferences as ecclesial subjects endowed with doctrinal authority
This sounds like https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CombiningMecha but with bishops instead of robots (I assume bishops have some degree of doctrinal authority within their diocese and now we are talking about combining them into MEGA-BISHOP which will have some degree of doctrinal authority within MEGA-DIOCESE). If that's not what they wanted me to think of then they needed to include an illustrative example because I have no idea what they are talking about.
A brief guide:
Nothing. It was nothing. It said nothing, it hinted at nothing, etc.
The synod on synodality dies, not out of rebellion, but apathy.
Apathy is death.
"It notes that a proposal has emerged from the synod process to recognize тАЬepiscopal conferences as ecclesial subjects endowed with doctrinal authority, assuming socio-cultural diversity within the framework of a multifaceted Church, and favoring the appreciation of liturgical, disciplinary, theological, and spiritual expressions appropriate to different socio-cultural contexts.тАЭ "
I suggest this says that each local Church ("episcopal conference" can decide its own morality, what is evil and what is good. Not nothing.
And yet that's not in fact what it says, because you have to do a substitution to even try and make that point.
Francis sucks, his Synod on Synodality sucks, but let's criticize it for where it actually sucks. He's made clear time and time again (including in the official document starting this process just a few months ago) that synods were CONSULTATIVE in nature, and that any such body, while having doctrinal authority, did not have authority over doctrine. That's been a pretty consistent message.
Francis has explicitly rejected the idea that such a conference could decide its own morality, warning the German bishops that Germany already had a Protestant church and not to imitate it too much.
And, in case you haven't been paying attention, to really drive the point home, Francis has stripped almost all discussion of hotbed issues from the synod (and by extension lesser bodies) and relegated them to study groups, where they will die by inertia.
The issue with the synod is nothing is actually defined. Nice statements like "bodies have bishops have doctrinal authority' are certainly true (our eastern brothers understand this quite well) but without expressly saying what that authority is, AND IS NOT, does it matter? Or is it just window dressing?
For years Francis has played a game of strategic ambiguity on this process, thinking by saying nothing, he advances his agenda. Despite the fact that every synod has left with Francis either being defeated (synod on the family) or being forced to back down and get mad at bishops for discussing what he told them to discuss(Synod on the Amazon).
Christ's admonition about letting your yes be a yes and no be a no has never been more apparent in its wisdom than in the age of Francis.
"episcopal conferences as ecclesial subjects endowed with doctrinal authority"
I believe this means that an episcopal conference can assert doctrine?
"assuming socio-cultural diversity within the framework of a multifaceted Church"
This means that there can be "diversity" in asserting doctrine, yes?
Ipso facto, I stand by my comment.
See para 32 of Pope Francis' Evangelii Gaudium from 2013. It seems to be suggesting the same idea about authority for Bishops' Conferences - that each would have doctrinal authority. Would each country then set its own doctrine? Is any sane Catholic even considering this?
"Yet this desire has not been fully realized, since a juridical status of episcopal conferences which would see them as subjects of specific attributions, including genuine doctrinal authority, has not yet been sufficiently elaborated"
> episcopal conferences as ecclesial subjects endowed with doctrinal authority
This sounds like https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CombiningMecha but with bishops instead of robots (I assume bishops have some degree of doctrinal authority within their diocese and now we are talking about combining them into MEGA-BISHOP which will have some degree of doctrinal authority within MEGA-DIOCESE). If that's not what they wanted me to think of then they needed to include an illustrative example because I have no idea what they are talking about.
Did not expect to see TV tropes on the Pillar website, and I am not upset about it