Archbishop Aguer: The Synod on Synodality is leading souls from the truth of Christ and His Church
Historically, in Christian antiquity, a synod was called the convocation and meeting of the bishops, according to ecclesiastical provinces, each presided over by the metropolitan, who met in assembly to discuss matters of utmost importance, define doctrines, and condemn and refute heresies, noting the assortment of these errors, in contradiction to the Didache, the origin of which is apostolic. Two main features to bear in mind: the protagonists are always bishops, successors of the apostles of Jesus, and the duration is fixed in time, not excessively long.
The name synod has been used to signify only those meetings that are designated, i.e., an exclusively theological, ecclesiastical use. The history of the Church offers numerous testimonies of the interchange between synod and council, the latter name coming from the Latin, as we shall see below.
Aristotle rightly affirmed that the road, as a movement, is identified by the end; the goal is what allows us to recognize the road that leads to it, identifying it by where it leads. To give a banal example, if one wishes to go to Mar del Plata, one will not take the road that leads to Cordoba.
Concilium is an exquisitely Ciceronian voice. According to Cicero, nature “conciliates” us, unites us, first and foremost, with the gods, the fathers, and the fatherland. Concilium is equivalent to junta, or congress. History has reserved concilium to designate the universal convocation in the Church; synods are rather partial meetings, of a country, a region, a group of nations. Council and synod are synonymous. The reference to God and to the biblical Fathers – that is, to Tradition – identifies the Church and its councils. Synodus or synhodos, the Latin transcription of the Greek noun is in classical usage, and is also found in the writings of the Holy Fathers of the West.
The linguistic reference on which I have dwelt is not idle; it brings us closer to the nature of the realities addressed. The name is the thing.
The recent synod proposed by Rome has novel and unusual characteristics. It has been going on for two years, with consultation extended, through the dioceses, to the whole Church. The whole thing is an exaggeration, impossible to realise; the alleged democracy hides the reality: the results will be decided by the Pontiff, and it is difficult for him to give up the voluntary management of the guidelines he wants.
At this stage of the Francis pontificate, it is already known which inclinations and trends will be registered in the synod. Let it look like democracy; I decide, who can be fooled? The synodal time is several years in the making. Another new feature is the participation of lay people and, according to the “gender perspective,” also of women. This is the first time this has happened; the bishops are not the only participants.
It is to be feared that this universal synod will suffer from the contagion of the German Synodal Way, which smacks of heresy. Rome is silent, one can suspect that silence is its agreement. The German synod is obsessed with two main issues: the communion of divorced people who have entered into a second union, and the demand for greater insertion of homosexuals into ecclesial communion. I am not referring here to the many ecclesiastics who are homosexuals. Also – and this is already a historical issue – the opposition to Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae vitae. As the Buenos Aires daily La Prensa recalls, “Francis made the climate crisis one of the fundamental pillars of his decade-long leadership.” It is very likely that the synod in progress will also take up this theme and insist on it.
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