These Last Days News - March 14, 2024
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9-7. New Synod Documents Reveal Discussion Themes for Study Groups Formed By Francis...
Worse to Come
"And if you think you have seen carnage now already in the Church, the worst is yet to come, unless you follow the rules given by My Mother many years ago, of prayer, atonement, and sacrifice."
- The Bayside Prophecies
Jesus, June 18, 1986
ONLY SATAN SEEKS CHANGE
"There is no time or change in Heaven. The Father never changes. It is only satan who seeks change to disturb, corrupt, and degrade. Satan roams wherever there is darkness of spirit. He will debase mankind in a manner so foul that you will know that no human could conceive of such vileness of sin.”
- The Bayside Prophecies
Our Lady of the Roses, March 22, 1975
LifeSiteNews.com reported on March 14, 2024:
by Michael Haynes
Leaders of the Synod on Synodality have published two new texts, highlighting Pope Francis’ plans to implement a more permanent effect of the multi-year synod by the format of study groups for key synod themes.
At a press conference today, a panel of speakers comprised of the Synod on Synodality’s leading members presented two lengthy documents, showing the results of the General Secretariat of the Synod’s recent workings in order to orchestrate the workings of the upcoming October session of the Synod on Synodality.
The first is called “How to be a synodal Church in mission? Five perspectives to deepen theologically in view of the Second Session.” It presents what the text describes as “the guiding question,” given that the text adds how the Synod on Synodality has “made us increasingly aware of our mission.”
The second detailed the study groups on key synod themes which Pope Francis – in February 17 – taskedthe Roman Curia to form in cooperation with the General Secretariat of the Synod. It is called, “Study groups on questions arising in the First Session of the 16thOrdinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops to deepen in collaboration with the Dicasteries of the Roman Curia.”
Both texts demonstrate the self-reflective, circular, discussion model as a chief theme and emerging new style of operation for the Church, and appear to posit the future of the Church as being intrinsically oriented toward the “synodal” process.
The first document noted that the “ongoing synodal process is bringing out a new way of exercising the Petrine ministry.” It also heavily emphasized a need for the Synod on Synodality and its accompanying style and process to become a natural part of the Church’s entire workings.
A need was raised of ensuring local participation in the synod process, as noted in the October 2023 Synthesis Report, “to keep the synodal dynamic alive in the local Churches so that an increasing number of people can experience it directly.”
Questioned about topics such as priestly celibacy, homosexuality, LGBT, realtor general of the synod Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich told the assembled journalists that the synod was not on any specific topic. He added that he continued to keep his own personal interest or preferences out of the event as a whole.
Hollerich was joinedat the presenting table by Cardinal Mario Grech – secretary general of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops – along with leading theologians of the Vatican Curia.
Study groups until June 2025
But the chief news from today’s conference was regarding the study groups. The synod leadership team highlighted the February 17 instructionof Pope Francis to establish study groups in the Roman Curia to delve into ten themes which have been highlighted from October’s Synthesis Report. The lengthier second document was devoted entirely to detailing and explaining these themes.
The themes are listed below, as outlined by the Pope in a February 22 letter he sent to Grech but which was only released today:
1. Some aspects of relations between the Eastern Catholic Churches and the Latin Church (RdS 6).
2. Listening to the cry of the poor (RdS 4 and 16).
3. Mission in the digital environment (RdS 17).
4. The revision of the Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalisin a synodal perspective missionary perspective (RdS 11).
5. Some theological and canonistic questions around specific ministerial forms (RdS 8 and 9).
6. The revision, in a synodal and missionary perspective, of the documents governing relations between Bishops, Consecrated Life, Ecclesial Aggregations (RdS 10).
7. Certain aspects of the figure and ministry of the Bishop (in particular: criteria for the selection of candidates for the episcopate, the judicial function of the Bishop, the nature and conduct of visits ad limina Apostolorum) in a missionary synodal perspective (RdS 12 and 13).
8. The role of the Pontifical Representatives in a missionary synodal perspective (RdS 13).
9. Theological criteria and synodal methodologies for a shared discernment of doctrinal, pastoral and ethical controversial issues (RdS 15).
10. The reception of the fruits of the ecumenical journey in ecclesial practices (RdS 7).
While no topic is devoted entirely to some of the more controversial talking points of the synod – such as female deacons, lay ministry, married clergy – such aspects are contained within the ten themes.
For instance, the fifth discussion theme about “ministerial forms” includes the subject of the role women in the Church and “a growth in the pastoral responsibilities entrusted to them in all areas of the life and mission of the Church.” It is this question which will encompass the “possible access of women to the diaconate,” drawing on the October 2023 Synthesis Reportand the 2016 and 2020 commissions on female deacons.
The synod leadership team noted that the list excludes the topics which will be chiefly discussed at the October 2024 session of the Synod on Synodality. That upcoming meeting will officially be focussed on the theme of “How to be a synodal Church in mission?”
The study groups are a novel format in the Synod on Synodality so far, and give the first sign that the nearly three-year event will be further elongated until at least June 2025 – the date at which the study groups are set to conclude their work. The Synod on Synodality is due to end in October 2024.
The General Secretariat of the Synod is given the role of overseeing and “animating” the various studies of all groups which convene to discuss the ten topics. Additionally, the General Secretariat will be helped in this task by the International Theological Commission (which advises the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith), and the Pontifical Biblical Commission. Another tool in this endeavor will be a newly formed canonical commission which will be formed by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Legislative Texts and work for the General Secretariat.
Synod next stages
In so far as what effect today’s developments will have on the upcoming October meetings of the Synod on Synodality, the first document presents the clear, guiding principle for the discussions. The month-long event will be devoted, officially, to the themes which will have emerged from the question of “How to be a synodal Church in mission?”
As previously outlinedby the General Secretariat of the Synod in December 2023, local bishops and bishops’ conferences are currently tasked with compiling reflections on October’s Synthesis Report.
Summaries from bishops conferences and dioceses must be submitted to the Vatican by May 15, 2024 and will “serve as the basis for the drafting of the Instrumentumlaboris.”
The various themes as discussed by the Roman Curia discussion groups will “also flow into the materials underlying the Instrumentumlaboris” which will underpin the discussion of the October 2024 synod meeting.
In addition, the input of an international conference of priests – due to take place near Rome in late April – will also guide the formation of October’s Instrumentumlaboris.
According to a timelinereleased in December by the Vatican, the Instrumentumlaboriswill be written by late June 2024.
But such additional information about how the Instrumentumlaboris will be written appear to be of secondary significance to the synod leadership team, in contrast to the news about the papally-orchestrated study groups.
Indeed, the study groups appear set to make permanent the workings and styles of the Synod on Synodality in the Vatican and throughout the wider Church, ensuring that no matter the outcome of the October synod meetings, the Synod on Synodality will remain a watershed moment.
JESUS NEVER CHANGES
"Come out of the darkness, my sisters. You have been misled. Do not follow the fashions of your world. There is no fashion in Heaven. Jesus never changes. There is great punishment ahead for those who follow the world. Do not leave when you are discouraged by those who satan has sent into your convents. Stand forth as an example of purity and godliness. You will not be cast aside by your God, as you will by man, as you stand to defend your God. Pick up your cross and carry it. You will return the habit to the floor."
- The Bayside Prophecies
St. Theresa, November 20, 1972
“WE DO NOT CONDONE VARIATIONS AND CHANGES"
"It has grieved Me much in the past, as it grieves Me now, that mankind is making changes to My words. I assure you, My children and pastors within My houses, My Church upon earth, there is no necessity to change My words. Heaven, hell, purgatory, and especially, My children, the word 'hell' must be retained in your prayers."Repeat, My child, the confessional prayer.O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I confess to all my sins, because I dread the loss of Heaven and the pains of hell, but most of all because I love Thee, my God, Who are all-good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. Amen."Yes, My child, We do not condone variations and changes. It is the enemies of your God that have set themselves to promote change upon My words. The word of your God is eternal and must not be changed.”
- The Bayside Prophecies
Jesus, February 10, 1977
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