PATRIARCHY VERSUS SYNODALITY (Under the Fig Tree Part 61)

Since Pope Francis invented it, the big thing among liberals in the Church is synodality. It is supposed to be a new way, THE way, of being Church.     We look on synodality as compared to patriarchy, which it is trying to replace. People can give their complex definitions of these two terms, but I will give you a simple layman’s understanding. Patriarchy is rule from the top-down, while synodality is rule from the bottom-up.

     Now from the time of Christ, the Church that he established had always been patriarchal. From Christ to the apostles to the presbyters and all the way down the line to the faithful. Patriarchy is so natural that secular and religious entities have embraced it.

• Governments. A typical democratic government would have the President, then Congress, then state legislatures/governors, then local governments/mayors.

• Business corporations. You have the Board, then the President, then the department heads, then section bureaucrats down the line.

• The military. There are the generals, colonels, majors, captains, lieutenants, sergeants, corporals and enlisted men.

• The Church. There are the Pope, the bishops, the clergy, and the laity.

• Marriage and the family. First is Christ, then the man over his wife, then the wife who supports him, then the children.

     Governance is from the top down. This helps ensure unity, peace, good order, and moving forward in lockstep for the one vision and mission.

     Now here comes synodality. Here everyone is to be consulted on any and all matters in the Church. No one is excluded, even non-Catholics, atheists and anti-Catholics. Can you imagine how ridiculous it is to consult an atheist or an anti-Catholic (how about a Satanist?) about what the Church should be doing?! It is perfectly all right to consult people down the line, but it should be those Catholics who have a love for the Church and who know even a little bit of its life, doctrine and culture.

     By the way, with Patriarchy there is also consultation. It is not about imposing tyrannical rule over subjects. The mind of the people can be sought, through fora, surveys, localized consultations, and the like. But in the end, those in the hierarchy decide.

     But for synodality, who decides? It is supposed to be by consensus. Can you imagine soldiers in the field discussing among themselves whether to attack or not? In the Church, oftentimes it is those with the loudest voices or the biggest followings that predominate. This is how LGBTs and other inane ideologies gather traction in the Church, and eventually make mainstream what should have been laughed out of existence in the first place.

    Patriarchy is about looking to God and the order He established. Synodality is about looking to man and his preferences for his life and faith. Patriarchy looks to the Bible, the very word of God, to age-old Church culture and traditions, and to the Magisterium as guided by the Holy Spirit. Synodality looks to the zeitgeist, to the culture of the age, and the desires and demands of the times.

     Protestants took the synodal approach from the start. They have no central authority, and so now there are over 40,000 Protestant denominations throughout the world. The different groups are just in “communion” with each other. Now you hear the word “communion” being

used more often by modernists in the Catholic Church. For Protestants, communion means the sharing of intimate thoughts and feelings. For Catholics, communion is union with Christ and with one another in a common life of faith.

     Synodality is alien to the life and tradition of the Catholic Church.

SALVE REGINA.