[Catholic Caucus] The Sham of Synodality

Complicit Clergy ^ | January 17, 2025 | Staff

[ebb tide]

[Catholic Caucus] The Sham of Synodality

The selective listening of our bishops is on full display.

Catholic commentator Dr. Larry Chapp nailed it in his recent column reacting to Cardinal Cupich’s ban on kneeling to receive communion said it well:

[The] letter from the Cardinal shows us is that for all the talk about a more “inclusive” and “listening” and “synodal” Church, and for all the agitprop pontifications from folks like Cupich about how in a synodal Church the “people of God” are “finally” getting their say, all the rhetoric surrounding the Synod about listening to all voices is an empty sham.

Chapp’s article is excellent… we encourage you to read the entire column.

Let’s also consider Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s  anti-Synodal response to Catholics in his archdiocese who are increasingly requesting for altar rails to be installed in their parishes.

We now have yet another data point debunking the mantra of Synodality. LifeSite News (LSN) just published a column exposing US bishops’s response (or lack thereof) to a historical survey on the Eucharist.

As you might recall, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) invested over $28+ million in a three-year Eucharistic Revival Campaign in response to a Pew Research study which purported to show that over 70% of Catholics do not believe in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.

In July of 2024, an informal group of Catholics, called the Real Presence Coalition (RPC), conducted a survey to discover the underlying issues which have led to a loss of faith in the Real Presence.  It resulted in the single largest survey of lay Catholics ever completed in the United States.

One would think that our bishops might be interested in learning more about the results of this survey, especially giving they were simultaneously in the midst of the Eucharistic Revival and Synod on Synodality at the time this survey was conducted.  But alas, this was not the case.

The LSN article cites the extraordinary lengths to which the RPC went to share the results of the survey with our bishops, publishing a timeline of the actions taken which we have republished below:

• September 17: RPC members decide to publicly release the survey findings on October 15, 2024. RPC sends email to Bishop Andrew Cozzens, head of the USCCB Eucharistic Revival, offering to personally review the survey results with him prior to the public release.
• September 23: Bishop Cozzens responds to email declining offer to review the survey results and suggests trying to schedule a discussion with Jason Shanks, the CEO of the National Eucharistic Congress.
• September 24: Jason Shanks declines offer to review survey results prior to their publication, stating he will review the findings one they are publicly released on October 15.
• October 5: RPC sent a message to Archbishop Timothy Broglio, head of the USCCB, offering to delay the pubic release of the survey findings if Bishop Broglio would prefer for RPC to present the findings at the USCCB November Fall Meeting scheduled for November 11-14 in Baltimore. This would give the bishops to opportunity to see the results prior to their public release.
• October 12: Archbishop Broglio contacted the RPC requesting the findings be emailed to him. The results were immediately sent to the Archbishop the same day who confirmed receipt.  The email to Archbishop Broglio confirmed the results were scheduled to be publicly released on October 15 unless he specifically requested a delay in order to present the findings at the USCCB November meeting.
• October 15: Having received no response from Archbishop Broglio, RPC proceeded with releasing the results to the public. An open letter was also sent to all U.S. bishops reiterating the offer made to Archbishop Broglio to present the findings at the USCCB November meeting.
• October 24: Having received no response to the offer of presenting the survey findings at the USCCB meeting, RPC decided to organize its own private event in Baltimore across the street from the USCCB meeting on November11. An invitation to the private event was sent to all 200 ordinary bishops in the United States.  The event included cocktails, dinner and a presentation by the pollster hired by RPC to assist with the study.
• November 8: Archbishop Broglio responds to the message sent to him on October 15, thanking us for sending him the survey and apologizing for not responding sooner. He sends his regrets for not being able to attend our private event on November 11.
• November 9: After sending a series of 3 emails and a facsimile message to 200 U.S. bishops, the results were as follows:
  • 5 bishops responded stating they planned to attend (2%),
  • 35 bishops responded by saying they would be unable to attend (18%), and
  • 159 bishops failed to have the courtesy to respond (80%).
• November 10: RPC sent a message to Archbishop Broglio offering to provide printed copies of the survey presentation to all bishops attending the general meeting.
• November 11: RPC receives a message from Archbishop Broglio declining the offer to print hard copies.
• November 11: A total of 5 bishops and 2 priests attend the RPC private event. Attendees asked good questions during the presentation and were highly complementary of the results.
• December 3: RPC sends message to Bishop Andrew Cozzens offering to personally meet with him to review the survey findings as well as debrief the bishop on the comments made by the bishops who attended our November 11 event in Baltimore. There was no response from Bishop Cozzens as of January 1, 2025.

Over 95% of respondents to the RPC poll attended Mass on at least a weekly basis.  In contrast, less than 35% of the Pew Research respondents attended Mass at least weekly.  Which begs the question: why did our bishops launched a multi-million dollar campaign based upon the beliefs of those who do not regularly practice the faith?  Would the money not been better spent trying to get fallen away Catholics to come back to Mass where 95% of people believe in the Real Presence?

Bishops expended an extraordinary effort and expense during the Synod on Synodality, reaching-out to all corners of the globe to listen to the voices of those on the peripheries of the Church, many of whom do not regularly practice the faith or have beliefs which directly contradict the traditional teachings of the Church. Similarly, our bishops made a multi-million dollar investment in the Eucharistic Revival Campaign largely based upon the beliefs of those who do not regularly practice their faith. But when it comes to the voices of faithful Catholics, the bishops seem not to have the time to listening to their voices.

Its time to face the fact that Synodality is nothing more than a sham being employed by bishops who want to fundamentally change the traditional teachings of the Catholic Church.

[ebb tide]

Its time to face the fact that Synodality is nothing more than a sham being employed by bishops (and Francis) who want to fundamentally change the traditional teachings of the Catholic Church.

[ebb tide]

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