WATCH: Gaspers Joins Marshall to Discuss Latest Synod News

Yesterday, I joined Dr. Taylor Marshall to discuss the latest news involving the Synod on Synodality (Oct. 2021–Oct. 2024), in particular, the deeply troubling “Working Document for the Continental Stage” (DCS) released by the Vatican on Oct. 27, 2022.

As we explain during the show, the Synod on Synodality and Vatican II (1962-1965) share the same root problem: “the drive for continuous ‘aggiornamento‘” (DCS, n. 101) — the false notion championed by Popes John XXIII and Paul VI that the Church must “update” herself in order to make herself more accessible and appealing to modern man, which has resulted in massive decline in nearly every area of Church life since the Council.

In the 1960s, aggiornamento meant “strip[ping] from our Catholic prayers and from the Catholic liturgy everything which can be the shadow of a stumbling block for our separated brethren, that is, for the Protestants,” according to Msgr. Annibale Bugnini (Mar. 19, 1965 in L’Osservatore Romano).

Today, according to the Synod of Bishops, aggiornamento clearly means (among other things) the establishment of some sort of ordained ministry for women (objectively impossible, per CCC 1577) and the acceptance of unnatural vice (also impossible).

In sum, the Synod on Synodality is meant to be an extension of Vatican II, as the Synod of Bishops made clear on the 60th anniversary of the Council’s opening:

“The purpose of the Synod [of Bishops] was and remains to prolong, in the life and mission of the Church, the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, as well as to foster in the People of God the living appropriation of its teaching, in the awareness that that Council represented ‘the great grace from which the Church has benefited in the 20th century’ (John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Novo millennio ineunte, Jan. 6, 2001, 57). …

The synodal process currently underway, dedicated to ‘Synodality in the Life and Mission of the Church,’ is also within the Council’s wake. The concept of ‘Synodality’ is found throughout the Council, even though this term (only recently coined) is not found expressly in the documents of the ecumenical assembly.”

In honor of the the same anniversary, Pope Francis said:

For a detailed written treatment of all of the above, be sure to read my article in the forthcoming December 2022 Edition of CFN (subscribe or renew your subscription HERE).