Sacrilege and synodality have come to the fore these last days.
For years the annual Religious Education Congress in Los Angeles has been a regular source of liturgical distress as various innovations test the bounds of reverence, not to say sacrilege. This year as the congress unfolded on the West Coast, the genuine sacrilege took place on the East Coast, at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. The “sacrilegious” – the apposite term of the cathedral rector – funeral for atheist transgender activist Cecilia Gentili was something of an ambush, with the surprised cathedral priests cutting it short and offering a Mass of Reparation for the outrages afterwards.
Father James Martin, SJ, to no one’s great surprise, had been invited to serve as ringmaster for that circus but, conveniently for him, he was on the other coast for the congress. It’s a pity the organizers didn’t think to invite Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, who might have found some suitable passages from his theo-erotic book Mystical Passion to read at the Gentili funeral, the deceased being described enthusiastically by one eulogist as the “mother of all whores.” A touch of cardinalitial erotic accompaniment would have fit it quite nicely.
About the funeral, plenty of comment has been offered elsewhere, with the flamboyant entourage of the deceased now disgruntled to have learned that instead of a funeral Mass, they got a simple Liturgy of the Word before the casket and congregation were hurried out the door. At the time, no one seemed to notice the difference, their liturgical piety apparently having become rather attenuated.
Meanwhile, back at the congress on the left coast, Cardinal Robert McElroy of San Diego was on hand to accuse those who oppose the papally-approved blessings for same-sex couples – but not same-sex unions! – to be driven by anti-gay “animus.” Be that as it may, what caught my attention was the response when Cardinal McElroy was asked whether synodality will outlive Pope Francis.
“I hope so, I think so,” he said, but “I’m not sure.”
If that’s what the champions of the Holy Father’s program think, then synodality is in rough shape. All throughout 2023, even as the planetary stage of the synodal process for a synodal Church rolled on, no one knew exactly what it was. Whatever it meant, all-encompassing synodality as a new-way-of-being-Church died on 18th December 2023, when the authorization for blessings for irregular and same-sex couples was published.
The super-consultative synodal process will never recover. After all, how will the Holy Father and his advisors respond when, in the first days of the synodal assembly this coming October, someone asks, “What secret projects are the Holy Father and Roman Curia working on right now that take no account of the synod process, contradict its decisions, and undermine its credibility?”
Denials can be offered aplenty, but once that clandestine horse has bolted from the synodal barn, it is hard to get it back. Especially since the African bishops shot it dead at point-blank range. The synodal managers are desperately trying to breathe life into the expired steed, but trying to revive a dead horse is even more pointless than flogging it.
Nevertheless, the never-ending synodal process on synodality for synodal Church continues. The Vatican announced the dates for October. It will be preceded by another spiritual retreat. Perhaps last year’s retreat master, Father Timothy Radcliffe, OP, will return to advance his lifetime project of undermining the Church’s settled teaching on homosexuality. It would seem at this stage that it would be more honest to just have Fr. Martin preach the retreat instead. He could use whatever notes he might have prepared for a Gentili panegyric.
Back in Rome, the synod apparatus announced that it would convene a meeting of 300 parish priests from around the world for several days of synodal discussions on synodality. The synodocrats were embarrassed last year when it turned out that they forgot to invite any parish priests to the October assembly. They won’t be invited this year either, but there will be a sort of not-yet-ready-for-prime-time version for them this spring.
Cardinal McElroy is correct to be unsure whether the flagship synodality project will outlive Pope Francis. Likely not, as synodality has brought the Orthodox to mutual excommunications and fractured the Anglican Communion. In the Catholic world, synodality in Germany flirts with schism and for the Syro-Malabar Church has brought violence into the sanctuary. It’s not an auspicious time for synodality, even if the Roman Curia were not scheming behind the backs of the synodal members.
The retirement of this month of Cardinal José Luis Lacunza brought to mind one of the reasons that synodality in such rough shape. Cardinal Lacunza was one of the cardinals “from the peripheries,” created the first cardinal from Panama by Pope Francis in 2015. He was not the archbishop of Panama City, but rather the bishop of David, a smaller diocese, all the better to make the point that Cardinals could come from anywhere.
Cardinal Lacunza’s 80th birthday falls on 24 February 2024 (today!), so his retirement was expected. It was accelerated after an odd disappearance a few weeks ago, which sent the authorities in search of him. When he surfaced, unharmed, after a few days Lacunza apologized for what he called “a stupid prank.”
As a new Cardinal he made a splash early at the Synod on the Family in 2015. He argued that Moses, who permitted divorce, was more merciful than Jesus, who did not. “Why can’t Peter be more like Moses?,” Lacunza asked.
That spectacular misadventure in biblical theology was reported on the website of the Polish bishops. The synod managers swung into swift action and muzzled. . .not Lacunza, but the Poles. The synod secretariat banned any reporting of synod interventions to prevent any further embarrassment from the theological peripheries.
And so it has been ever since. The rickety ship Synodality has been taking on water. Pope Francis will heroically try to bring it into port this year before it sinks, but it won’t be easy. There would be many who would be pleased if, like the Gentili funeral, it was cut short, and everybody was just sent home.
