Last month a social media intern working for the General Secretariat of the Synod posted a poll on (formerly Twitter). The yes/no poll asked: “Do you believe that synodality as a path of conversion and reform can enhance the mission and participation of all the baptized?”
One can imagine the thought process of this young intern. He (or she) is surrounded by people obsessed with All Things Synod. These people have been living and breathing the Synod on Synodality for years, and likely believe it is revolutionary in the life of the Church. If this poll were taken in the Secretariat’s offices, I’m sure the “Yes” votes would have approached 100% of the total. I’m sure this poor intern was expecting similar enthusiasm from the common folk.
So what was the result on , when actual Catholics in the real world were asked? Not so rosy.
Out of 7,001 votes, the “No” votes accumulated an astounding 88% of the total. Many of the replies to the poll included pithy remarks such as “Please preach the Gospel” and “We just want the TLM.” The response was so embarrassing to the Synod that it deleted the poll.
The irony just oozes out of this overwhelmingly negative response. Synodality, after all, purports to be based on the idea that the Church should listen to the people, to respond to their hopes and desires. The Church need no longer be run in a top-down fashion, we are told. Power to the people!
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Yet when the people spoke, the Synod officials shut them down because what the people said didn’t go along with what they wanted to hear. I guess it’s not really a people-driven movement after all.
Calls for “Synodality” in the Church are similar to recent calls for “Democracy” among progressives in America. The Left warns that democracy will be over if someone it doesn’t like is democratically elected, and is so concerned with protecting democracy that it will circumvent democratic processes and have its power brokers anoint a candidate behind closed doors. Then Democracy can be saved.
When Vatican officials speak of synodality they mean the same thing Democrats mean when they speak of democracy: rule by a progressive elite with a populist veneer.
This is why we have this weird focus on synodality, which is essentially just a bureaucratic process. And it is weird: recently a prominent Argentine theologian commented, “It is not enough to have a synod, it is necessary to become a synod.” What?!?
Church leaders promote synodality as the cure for all that ails the Church because synodality is a cover.
