Is the Synod Asking the Wrong Questions? (Part I of II)

Catholic Culture, Phil Lawler:

Have you noticed that in recent years, before each meeting of the Synod of Bishops, public attention tends to fixate on one very specific topic?

  • In 2015, before the Synod on the Family, everyone was asking whether Catholics who are divorced and illicitly remarried should receive the Eucharist.
  • In 2019, before the Amazon Synod, the question was whether married men could be ordained as priests.
  • Today, in the preparation for the Synod on Synodality, the question is whether the Church will bless homosexual unions.

Granted, to some extent the focus on these hot-button issues reflects the obsessions of the mainstream media. (If the topic for the next meeting on the Synod is the Trinity, no doubt the pundits will be pushing for a statement on the ordination of women.) And to some extent it reflects the fallout from the German bishops’ “Synodal Path,” which has fully embraced the secular outlook and its favorite concerns. But even in more moderate Catholic circles, the discussion leading up to the October Synod meeting has leaned heavily toward those same issues: homosexuality, divorce, contraception, and feminism. Report is here.