Originally published at The Catholic Thing
The Synod on Synodality is a self-defined exercise in listening, openness, transparency – and a whole litany of the usual progressive shibboleths. In practice, it has been marked by listening almost exclusively with the left ear, openings only to revisionist sects like pro-LGBT and women’s ordination groups, and an absolute opaqueness – the result of the synod managers requiring delegates not to speak to anyone outside about what’s going on inside so that participants can be candid without having to worry about their remarks coming back to haunt them later. (So sweeping is this rationale that the ban on disclosure is supposed to remain in force in perpetuity.)
Except for a very few, almost totally unenlightening, press conferences and a few special events, any curious person has almost no way to know anything about a “process” that is supposed to be a model of the open new synodal style of “being Church.”
It’s no surprise that one consequence of this model is that there are even fewer people than in the past interested in what’s going on – even in Rome. Still, there are leaks for those of us looking for them. And one that should be of particular interest,
