Ex-Synod: Is the Final Text 'Normative' or 'Non-Normative'?
He claimed that it was "not normative" and then that it was "normative" and part of the ordinary magisterium.
The matter concerns the 155 conclusions of the two former ex-synodal assemblies on "synodality" (2023-2024).
Francis' accompanying note states that this document is part of his ordinary Magisterium and must therefore be listened to and accepted.
At the same time, Monsignor Riccardo Battocchio, Special Secretary of the XVI General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, explained on 26 October, during the press conference in which he presented the text of the Synod's conclusions:
"I don't want to interpret Francis' thinking, but when he says that this document is not normative - he said so - it does not mean that this document does not commit the Churches, it is not the answer to all the questions raised, it does not give norms in the sense of actions to be taken to solve problems."
Monsignor Battocchio proposed verbal acrobatics that ultimately lead to the ambiguous path of a 'maybe' for the content (155 paragraphs), which is different from the full text, which would only be an 'appeal', 'an orientation', 'a direction to be taken together' towards 'conversion'.
Badilla poses the rhetorical question if a reading is possible, which separates the integral document from its individual contents to the point of stating contradictory things?
For him, "synodality", which has been discussing for more than three years, "is by no means a clear, precise and unambiguous thing". He admits that "on 'synodality' we are basically back to square one".
Badilla analyses that this leaves us with a glimpse of a "the multiple divisions" within the Church, "something that for some time now - without anyone talking about it - has been reflected in the growth of strong contrasts, polarisations and distinctions within the Bishops' Conferences of all continents".
The Ex-Synod is silent on the fact that the growing antagonism within the Church "is registered first and foremost among the bishops of the world".
Regarding the final text of the Ex-Synod, "it is possible to speculate that between the various definitions and explanations, the text will ultimately remain a dead letter. It would not be the first in recent years".
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