Vatican Synodal Report Marks Tectonic Shift In Church Framing of Homosexuality

Two things that non-Catholics and many Catholics don’t understand about the Catholic Church are that it’s not a democratic organization and it’s not an autocracy. In other words, as powerful as the Pope is, he cannot arbitrarily or single-handedly change doctrine and policy. At the same time, even though the church counts 1.4 billion members around the world, it is not structured to take their input into account the way representative government works in America.

Among Catholics, this confusion often pops up when the discussion turns to declining mass attendance and increases in the number of lapsed Catholics who no longer consider themselves a part of the church, even though they may have been baptized in the church.

To get them back, we might argue, the church needs to allow women to be priests, or priests to get married, or to change our hard line on abortion, or to change the church’s position on LGBTQ issues.

That’s not how it works, or at least, that’s not how it’s supposed to work. I know I’m going to hear from the Catholic catechism and Canon Law technicians on this oversimplification, but here goes: The church is here for Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit and God Himself. We exist to please God. God does not exist to please us. He is not our creation. We are His creation.

From a purely administrative standpoint, the church has had to find ways over the past 2,000 years to function in a changing world. That is definitely not to say that the church has had to change with the times or change simply to stay relevant, but rather, it has had to stay true to itself in the context of the times.

Against this backdrop, Pope Francis decided to convene a Synod of Bishops in 2021...

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In the Catholic Church, a Synod of Bishops is a formal assembly where bishops meet to discuss subjects tied to doctrine, governance, pastoral practice, or mission. If there is any one approach the church uses to try to stay relevant, this would be a key method. Of course, there are many within the church who argue against a “synodal mentality,” where they feel that the desire to be more relevant or “accessible” can undermine the core attributes of the church itself. They feel too much weight is assigned to synods.

According to insiders, throughout the synodal process, the bishops looked more closely at a number of issues, including women’s ordination, the church and the internet, ecumenism, polygamy, the Catholic liturgy, and other things. But the headlines coming out of the final report are sure to center mostly on how it treated the LGBTQ issues.

The synod’s final report includes that testimony where two “married” homosexual men, who say they are Catholic, described the church’s role in creating an atmosphere of “solitude, anguish, and stigma that accompany persons with same-sex attractions and their families.”

(or to change our hard line on abortion, or to change the church’s position on LGBTQ issues.)

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