POPE FRANCIS' PUSH TOWARD SYNODALITY: Part Two

It is clear  that more traditionally-minded Bishops do not agree with nor accept the synodality which Pope Francis espouses.

Recently, Cardinal Robert Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, warned that the Church’s unity is being threatened by influential leaders within the Church who “insist” that national churches have the “capacity to decide for themselves” on doctrinal and moral matters.

“Without a common faith, the Church is threatened by confusion and then, progressively, she can slide into dispersion and schism,” the Cardinal said.

“Today there is a grave risk of the fragmentation of the Church, of breaking up the Mystical Body of Christ by insisting on the national identities of the Churches and thus on their capacity to decide for themselves, above all in the so-crucial domain of doctrine and morals,” he added.

Catholics profess every Sunday in the Nicene Creed that the Church is “one, holy, Catholic, and Apostolic.” These are often called the four “marks” of the one true Church.

“The Universal Church is not a sort of federation of local churches," he said. “The Universal Church is symbolized and represented by the Church of Rome, with the Pope at its head, the successor of Saint Peter and the head of the apostolic college; hence it is she who has given birth to all the local churches and she who sustains them in the unity of faith and love.”

Cardinal Sarah said that the Church will grow throughout the world only if it is united by “our common faith and our fidelity to Christ and his Gospel, in union with the Pope.”

“As Pope Benedict XVI tells us: ‘It is clear that a Church does not grow by becoming individualized, by separating on a national level, by closing herself off within a specific cultural context, by giving herself an entirely cultural or national scope; instead the Church needs to have unity of faith, unity of doctrine, unity of moral teaching. She needs the Primacy of the Pope, and his mission to confirm the faith of his brethren,’” he said.

And so, the tensions between the more traditional ecclesiology espoused by such Bishops as Cardinal Sarah and the synodal vision of Church teaching and discipline enunciated by Pope Francis become more visible with each passing day.

Whether the Church is able to endure the strain of the fragmentation to which Cardinal Sarah alludes is anyone’s guess at the moment.  Perhaps, we all need to remind ourselves that the Church has been entrusted to the Holy Spirit for guidance and protection, for unity and peace.

Perhaps, everyone’s agreement on that basic tenet of Faith will be enough to assist us through the trials and difficulties that lie before us in the years ahead.