EDITORIAL: Synodality has something to offer the Catholic Church, but not at the expense of what it actually teaches.
The Vatican’s “Synod Study Group 9” has gone out with a whimper — and an embarrassing one at that.
Originally tasked with applying synodality’s emphasis on “listening” to “controversial doctrinal, pastoral, and ethical areas,” the group caused needless controversy on May 5 when it released a final report that diminished Revelation’s implications for sexual morality while presenting a misleading portrayal of Catholic Church teaching by positively featuring the “testimonies” of two men in civilly recognized same-sex marriages.
The group’s promoters hailed the report as a “big deal,” a “breath of fresh air” and a deviation from “top-down” approaches. But within days, Study Group 9’s report on homosexuality was unveiled to be a predictable exercise in classic bureaucratic activism, rather than the sincere listening that synodality espouses.
The “witnesses” that the document anonymously cited turned out to be known LGBTQ activists. The lone African member of the group didn’t even participate in drafting the controversial section, having previously called “the ideology of sexual orientation” unbiblical. And multiple cardinals of the Church have repudiated the report. Tellingly, not one has publicly come
