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Posted on 06/23/2026 2:44:13 PM PDT by ebb tide
“For there have crept in some men (who were written of long ago unto this judgment), impious, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only sovereign Ruler, and our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Jude 4)[1]
“It will not be out of place to consider the ancient tradition, teaching and faith of the Catholic Church, which was revealed by the Lord, proclaimed by the apostles and guarded by the fathers. For upon this faith the Church is built, and if anyone were to lapse from it, he would no longer be a Christian either in fact or in name.” (St. Athanasius, bishop; First Letter to Serapion)
(LifeSiteNews) — The propagators of the “synodal church” have published their final report on priestly ministry. Promulgated by the Vatican on March 3, 2026,[2] the report was the product of Synod Study Group 4 – one of the many “study groups” mandated by Pope Francis to help implement the Final Document[3] of the never-ending Synod on Synodality, which is currently in its three-year “implementation stage.”[4]
In this essay I offer a critique of this report and demonstrate the impact of the final report of Study Group 9, promulgated on May 6 of this year, which discusses “emerging doctrinal, pastoral and ethical issues.”[5] I will show how they are linked in their practical application, but first I’ll explain the process that gave birth to them.
READ: Cdl. McElroy praises Vatican downplaying of homosexual sin during James Martin’s conference
The Final Document from the Synod on Synodality was issued in October of 2024, at the close of the Synod. Usually popes issue an apostolic exhortation following a synod of bishops, based on recommendations of the bishops throughout the world who attend the synod, taking into account their discussions and suggestions.
But the Synod on Synodality was different. It was held in two sessions, October 2023 and October 2024, and in addition to bishops who attended (by Pope Francis’ invitation, among them being Bishop Robert Prevost, the future Pope Leo XIV), select clergy and laity attended as well. Instead of issuing an apostolic exhortation, Pope Francis, by fiat, adopted the document summarizing the discussions and recommendations of the Synod participants – published as the Synod’s Final Document – as part of his magisterium.
With a cursory reading of the Final Document (FD) one sees the “synodal process” described with innocuous phrases (repeated ad nauseam) such as “walking/journeying together” and “listening to one another” on the “synodal path.” But a critical reading of the FD and of public statements made by both Synod leaders and participants, which I offer in my book, The Trojan Horse in the Catholic Church,[6] reveals an evil scheme: to invert the Church’s hierarchical and sacramental structure, and to subvert the entire moral order. How so?
The new “synodal church” will operate in democratic fashion. Faith and morals will be taught, and decisions on Church governance will be made, not according to a hierarchical structure of authority as willed by its Founder, Jesus Christ – i.e., by the successor to Peter, the Church’s earthly head, and by bishops, successors to the Apostles, in union with the pope – but rather according to a “synodal process” in which everyone – bishops, priests and laity (including non-Catholic Christians, and even non-Christians) – “journeys” together, everyone “shares” and “listens” to one another, everyone “has a voice” and “is heard” – in modernistic fashion as mandated by the Synod’s Final Document.[7]
This model of the Church inverts its hierarchical structure so that the top of the pyramid becomes the base and the base becomes the top. In practical terms, this means that the Church’s teachings on faith and morals will be re-fashioned via a democratic process to accommodate the New World Order – in the manner being proposed by the German Synodal Way.
The paradigm for the new synodal church: the German Synodal Way
To get an idea of what the future “synodal church” will look like, one need only look to the Church in Germany and its Synodal Way, which commenced in March of 2019 (more than four years before the Synod on Synodality began) when the German bishops met in assembly and agreed to begin a “synodal process.” On the last day of their assembly, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, then-president of the German Bishops’ Conference, told reporters that “the majority of bishops” agreed that there is “a need for change” in the Church’s teaching regarding sexual morality; and that at the end of their synodal process the German bishops would send a letter to Rome, thereby introducing to the universal Church the themes they discussed.[8]
Fast forward three years: sodomy is no longer a sin. During the fourth assembly of the German Synodal Way (Sept. 8-10, 2022), 71 percent of German bishops voted along with a large majority of lay members in favor of the document “Magisterial Reassessment of Homosexuality,” which includes following text: “Same-sex sexuality – also realized in sexual acts – is thus not a sin that separates from God, and it is not to be judged as intrinsically evil.” The document also calls for a change in the Catechism of the Catholic Church’s teaching on homosexuality and chastity (2357-2359 and 2396).[9]
Fast forward another few years: laity share authority with bishops. In January 2026 the Central Committee of German Catholics (a lay body whose members represent different organizations) demanded not only that the laity be placed on the same level as the bishops in matters of Church governance (especially financial control), but also that it be granted “decision-making power and be able to introduce changes to doctrine [matters of faith and morals] by majority vote.”[10] Here we see the heresy of Modernism in concrete practice via the “synodal process,”[11] and how synodality not only inverts the Church’s hierarchical structure, but paves the way for the overturning the entire moral order (the real goal of the “synodal process,” I contend) – thus permitting, by democratic majority vote, homosexual sodomy, same-sex “marriage,” divorce and “remarriage,” abortion, contraception, etc.
On February 24, 2026, the German Bishops’ Conference announced that it adopted statutes for a “Synodal Conference” (a continuation of the German Synodal Way) which would allow for bishops, other clergy and laity to “discuss and decide on ecclesiastical matters together”;[12] and on March 31 the German bishops submitted these statutes to the Vatican for approval.[13] Also worth noting: At the Chrism Mass in the Cologne Cathedral on March 30, 2026, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki bemoaned the fact that Liturgy of the Word services led by the laity were replacing the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in parishes on Sundays.[14]
READ: Here’s what went wrong with the Jesuits
Study Group 4 was composed of nine members, and included three cardinals, five priests, and one lay woman.[15] Notably, one of the cardinals was Jean-Claude Hollerich, S.J., archbishop of Luxembourg and relator general of the Synod on Synodality. In his October 7, 2024, address to all the participants during the second session of the Synod, Hollerich proposed that the Holy Spirit is “inviting” the Church to move “from a pyramidal [i.e., hierarchical] way of exercising authority to a synodal way (IL2, n. 36).”[16] Also worth noting is that Cardinal Hollerich – who advocates a change in the Church’s teaching so as to permit homosexual sodomy[17] – was president of the 14-member commission which oversaw the drafting of the Synod’s Final Document.[18]
The Premise (opening statement) in the final report issued by Study Group 4 states that this group was directed to undertake a revision of the 2016 document from the Congregation for the Clergy on priestly formation, “The Gift of the Priestly Vocation” (Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis).[19] However, the report later explains that instead of revising the 2016 document, it chose to “outline the relational identity of ordained ministers in a synodal missionary Church [whatever this means in synodal church newspeak] and indicate principles and criteria for the implementation of the [2016 document] Ratio Fundamentalis.”
The Premise also notes that this report was the result of contributions from various sources: “priests and lay men and women from various parts of the world, particularly experts in the field of priestly formation”; “a delegation of participants in the second session of the Synod on Synodality” who on October 18, 2024, shared their “concerns” on this topic; and finally, “listening to” opinions of consultors of the Dicastery for the Clergy as well as consulting commissions on clergy from episcopal conferences throughout the world who offered opinions on priestly formation.
Next comes the Preamble of the report, which boldly proclaims: “This document … is the mature fruit of a worldwide ecclesial discernment and has been given magisterial value by Pope Francis.”[20] Here we learn that this report, composed by handful of select individuals (one of whom is a sodomy-promoting prince of the Church), has “magisterial value” – a theologically imprecise, but still significant, designation, surely to be utilized by promoters of the synodal church for this report and reports from other study groups.
The report of Study Group 4 makes frequent reference to the Synod’s Final Document. Therefore, as I did with my 5-part essay detailing the ongoing implementation of the FD under Pope Leo XIV (a follow up to The Trojan Horse),[21] I will use the FD herein as an interpretive key to better grasp the insidious nature of this report and what it recommends.
The opening line of the Introduction to the report praises the synodal process with the following self-serving proclamation: “The path of synodality is precisely the path that God expects from the Church of the third millennium” (emphasis in original). And the very next line leaves no doubt that men in seminary formation must be wholeheartedly on board with this novel (and nefarious, I assert) “synodal path” in order to be admitted to the priesthood:
During the ongoing synodal process, there is a growing conviction that this path, indicated to the Church by Pope Francis and taken up by Pope Leo XIV from the very beginning of his Pontificate,[22] would remain without the fruits of real communion and courageous mission if it did not also have an impact on the methods of formation for the ordained ministry (emphasis added).
In other words, as the “synodal process” unfolds during this three-year implementation period, there is a “growing conviction that this path,” this “self-affirming mission,” will not achieve its proposed goals unless seminarians (future priests and bishops) receive “proper formation” in synodal group think – which in turn requires carefully screening men in seminary formation to guarantee they are all in full agreement with transforming the Church into a democratic decision-making institution in which the laity are empowered, by sharing authority with their bishops, to govern the Church and to make changes in the Church’s teachings: to allow for contraception, divorce and “remarriage,” homosexual sodomy, same-sex “marriage,” and “ordination” of women[23] – just as the synodal process in Germany now demands.
The FD both encourages and supports such an approach. FD no. 77 says that “the lay faithful, both men and women, should be given greater opportunities for participation … in a spirit of collaboration and differentiated co-responsibility.” It states that “some concrete needs have emerged from the synodal process” and calls for “increased participation of laymen and laywomen in … all phases of decision-making processes (drafting, making and confirming decisions)”; and also for “greater access of laymen and laywomen to positions of responsibility in dioceses and ecclesiastical institutions, including seminaries, theological institutes and faculties” (emphasis added).
So some of the “concrete needs” that “emerged from the synodal process” (i.e., from those hand-picked participants in both sessions of the Synod) include involvement by the laity in “all phases of decision-making processes” at the diocesan and parish levels – supposedly to enable bishops and pastors to better “serve” the flock of Christ;[24] and (following the German Synodal Way) that lay men and women should have “greater access” to positions of responsibility in dioceses, in parishes and in seminaries – in the formation of future priests. Why, we might ask? No doubt, in order to exercise control over bishops and priests in the exercise of their authority,[25] and to weed out manly seminarians who are faithful to the authentic Magisterium so as to pave the way for a feminized, sodomy-supporting episcopacy and priesthood composed of men who are enthusiastic supporters of the synodal church, i.e., who are willing to “listen” and “dialogue” with “everyone” (as Pope Francis was wont to say).
This sounds like a replay of Goodbye, Good Men, the groundbreaking exposé published in 2002 detailing how many good, faithful men were barred from the priesthood precisely because of their fidelity to orthodox teaching and practice of the Church.[26] I know many priests who were either turned away from dioceses or seminaries or religious life, or left in disgust on their own accord, and had to pursue their vocations elsewhere precisely because they were not accepting of the homosexual and heterodox agendas deeply embedded in various dioceses, religious houses and/or seminaries.
Especially the sodomite agenda. Two priest-friends of mine who attended seminary in one of the largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. have informed me that most of the men in their ordination class were part of the “lavender mafia”; these latter sailed easily through the seminary, while they themselves had to be extremely careful in navigating their way through seminary formation in order to be ordained.
I maintain that the entire synodal process, beginning with the Synod on the Family and its document Amoris Laetitia, together with the Synod on Synodality and its plot to invert the hierarchical order of the Church, in the end, is all about normalizing homosexual sodomy – as I argue in The Trojan Horse.[27]
As proof that the German Synodal Way and its heretical proposals are “leading the way” for the universal Church, especially regarding homosexuality and attempting change the Church’s teaching on this intrinsically disordered act, one can look to the final report of the Synod’s Study Group 9,[28] released on May 6, 2026 (and which was highly praised by LGBTQ+ groups).[29] The report arrogantly announces to the world a coming “paradigm shift” in moral theology in dealing with “controversial” and “emerging issues” (N.B.: “paradigm shift” appears 18 times in the report), and is in essence a call for acceptance of homosexual sodomy. Just consider this craftily-worded statement which attempts to place this sin which cries out to Heaven for vengeance (cf. Gen 18:20; 19:13)[30] on par with the marital act between a man and a woman, blasphemously – and boldly – claiming that their heretical proposal is the result of “listening to the Word of God lived in the Church”:
Finally, while listening to the Word of God lived in the Church, it is necessary to address with parrhesia [i.e., boldness] the currently recurring question of whether one can speak of “marriage” in relation to persons with same-sex attractions, equating their relationship to heterosexual conjugal union without recognizing the differences. These include, primarily, the evident impossibility of procreation per se linked to sexual difference, regarding which techniques of medically assisted procreation pose further difficulties.[31]
The pro-homosexualist Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia,[32] in a May 21 interview[33] – really a follow-up to the release of the report of Study Group 9 – has lifted the veil for everyone to see that, all along, the acceptance of homosexual acts has been the goal of the Synod on Synodality, as Gerhard Cardinal Müller has sagely noted.[34]
Be assured that those pushing synodality and the recommendations in the reports from both Study Groups 4 and 9 will use the full extent of their power to exclude/weed out faithful men from either entering or remaining in the seminary; and they will have a “magisterial” document, the Final Document of the Synod, along with the final reports from these Vatican-approved and mandated study groups, to wield as powerful swords over the heads of good men who are pursuing a priestly vocation.
Will you allow the divorced and civilly “remarried” (and by extension, same-sex “couples”) who are “following their conscience” to receive Holy Communion, as Pope Francis instructs in Amoris Laetitia?[35]
Are you willing to bestow blessings on homosexual couples? Don’t you know that to be ordained you must be willing to conform to the “magisterial” teachings of Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV which permit this practice?[36]
Do you view homosexual sodomy only from a natural law perspective, and thus intrinsically disordered? Are you not open to viewing it from a new, updated “paradigm” proposed by the synodal church which is in keeping with current cultural trends – as the report from Study Group 9 from the Synod on Synodality recommends? For example, viewing such acts from a “relational” perspective, as an alternative way of expressing love and affection, taking into consideration the “experiences of goodness” in such relationships[37] and viewing them as acts merely “differently ordered,” as Fr. James Martin, S.J. and others propose? After all, we can show you smiling photo-ops of Fr. Martin and Pope Francis!
Are you unaware that the final report from Study Group 9 from the Synod on Synodality states that “sin, at its root, does not consist in the (same-sex) couple relationship, but in a lack of faith in a God who desires our fulfillment”?[38] Don’t you accept this?
Would you harshly judge love physically expressed between same-sex couples by “deductively applying principles that are set out in an immutable and rigid manner,” rather than viewing such relationships as part of their “lived experience of faith,” taking into account the “diverse situations of life and the many cultural contexts” of same-sex couples?[39]
READ: Leo XIV exploits discredited historical myth in Spain to push mass migration
Will you allow women to guide you in your priestly ministry?
Are you open to the possibility of ordaining women to the diaconate and the priesthood?
How can you be a priest in today’s culture if you’re just not open to “walking with” and “listening to” people with other viewpoints?
And finally: Do you like the traditional Latin Mass? And do you have an unhealthy attachment to it?
The not-so-subtle message of the reports of Study Groups 4 and 9 should by crystal clear: accept and be a cheerleader for synodality and the laissez-faire “morality” of the New World Order of the Antichrist, or you will never be ordained a priest, much less a bishop.
This evil agenda necessitates a revision of seminary formation, and this is the meaning of the very next line from the Introduction in the report of Study Group 4:
How, in fact, could a Christian community proceed in its missionary work and in a communion capable of synodality, if it were not accompanied, presided over, and instructed by men who are outstanding in their apostolic zeal and synodal spirit?
Hence, the absolute necessity of only ordaining men who are in sync with and who will be zealous promoters of synodality and its new paradigm of morality. Without a steadfast commitment to the entire “synodal process” among bishops and priests, how can the synodal Christian community “proceed in its missionary work”? How can everyone be in “communion” with one another unless bishops and priests are imbued with zeal for the synodal vision and be willing to “walk together” and “listen” to everyone?
The Introduction cites no. 148 of the Final Document of the Synod, which calls for “precise guidelines for a formation to synodality.” Ah, yes, guidelines that are precise – to guarantee that no men circumvent the screening process who are not fully committed to the synodal church and its agenda of immorality, including its new “paradigm” which allows for homosexual sodomy.
The Introduction, after making reference to “concerns that emerged from the Synodal process and were collected in the Final Document,” speaks of the need to “deepen the relational identity of the ordained ministry, in dialogue with other ministries, defining it ‘in and from’ the People of God” – as if the primary purpose of the priesthood were not to preach, govern and administer the sacraments, but instead to “relate” to people and to “dialogue” with those in parish “ministries.”
The Introduction says that priestly formation should “activate a broad and real participation of all members of the People of God in the formation of future pastors, with particular attention to the contribution of women and families” – truly laughable, given that the great majority of Catholics neither know their faith well nor faithfully practice it! And why give “particular attention to the contribution of women” if one of the goals is not to emasculate future priests and make them more “relational” – like homosexuals, who, according to the first draft of the interim report used for the first session of that Synod on the Family in October 2014, have special “gifts and qualities to offer to the Christian community”?[40]
The Introduction goes on to speak of the need to “foster the acquisition of skills indispensable for a synodal Church, such as listening, dialogue, co-responsibility and ecclesial discernment.”
Noteworthy is that nothing is said about the need to form seminarians in the fullness of the truths of our Catholic Faith so that as priests and bishops they can effectively communicate the beauty of these truths to the laity, and teach them how to engage people in our neo-pagan culture and bring them to Christ and His Church. Nowhere does it speak of the need for men in priestly formation to grow in holiness to enable them to lead the flock into a deeper encounter and relationship with Jesus Christ, especially with Our Lord in the Eucharist, or into an authentic conversion from sin through the Sacrament of Penance. It is truly sad, given that the majority of Catholics fail to attend weekly Sunday Mass and neglect to regularly confess their sins.
If one reads past the Introduction, the report of Study Group 4 sets forth the means, or tactics, to be used for weeding out “uncooperative” men during seminary formation – those who are unswervingly faithful to the unchanging deposit of faith and who are unwilling to compromise their principles by cooperating with the malevolent designs of those promoting the synodal process: to invert the Church’s hierarchical structure, and to overturn/outright reject the moral order as revealed by God through Scripture and Tradition, as taught by the Church’s authentic and perennial Magisterium, and as made known by the natural law.
To be continued in Part II…
ReferencesReferences
| ↑1 | Douay Rheims trans. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | Final Report of Study Group No. 4: The Revision of the Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis in a Missionary Synodal Perspective,” March 3, 2026 (working English transl., original in Italian); avail. at https://www.synod.va/content/dam/synod/process/implementation/10workinggroups/final-reports/sg4/SG-4_ENG_Final-Report.pdf. |
| ↑3 | “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, Mission: Final Document”; avail. at https://www.synod.va/content/dam/synod/news/2024-10-26_final-document/ENG—Documento-finale.pdf. |
| ↑4 | See the official summary of the Final Document of the Synod, published under the authority of Pope Leo XIV: “Pathways for the Implementation Phase of the Synod 2025-2028: For a synodal Church, communion, participation, mission,” General Secretariat of the Synod (July 7, 2025); avail. at https://www.synod.va/content/dam/synod/process/implementation/pathways/250102—ENG-Pathways-for-the-implementation-phase.pdf; also avail. at https://www.usccb.org/resources/250102—ENG-Pathways-for-the-implementation-phase.pdf. |
| ↑5 | Final Report of Study Group No. 9, “Theological criteria and synodal methodologies for shared discernment of emerging doctrinal, pastoral, and ethical issues” (May 6, 2026) (working English transl., original in Italian); avail. at https://www.synod.va/content/dam/synod/process/implementation/10workinggroups/final-reports/sg9/SG-9_Final-Report.pdf. |
| ↑6 | Father Enoch, The Trojan Horse in the Catholic Church, Synod on Synodality: The Attempt to Invert the Bride of Christ’s Hierarchy and Moral Order (Phoenix, AZ: Catholics for Catholics, 2025). In the book’s foreword, Gerhard Cardinal Müller – who attended both sessions of the Synod (October of 2023 and of 2024) – stresses that the synodal process is “a means to undermine the hierarchical-sacramental structure of the Church and to replace it with an ‘inverted pyramid’ of governance,” and that “all these so-called synodal reflections are aimed at preparing us to accept homosexuality.” |
| ↑7 | See FD nos. 106 and 107; and my discussion in The Trojan Horse, 59-64. |
| ↑8 | German bishops announce ‘synodal process’ on celibacy, sexual morality,” Catholic News Agency (March 14, 2019); avail. at https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/40810/german-bishops-announce-synodal-process-on-celibacy-sexual-morality. |
| ↑9 | Andreas Wailzer, “German Synodal Way approves text calling homosexual acts ‘not sinful’ and ‘not intrinsically evil’,” LifeSiteNews (Sept. 12, 2022); avail. at https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/german-synodal-way-approves-text-calling-homosexual-acts-not-sinful-and-not-intrinsically-evil/. |
| ↑10 | Doug Mainwaring, “Schism fears arise as Catholic Church in Germany aims to put laity on ‘same level’ as bishops,” LifeSiteNews (Jan. 17, 2026); avail. at https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/schism-fears-arise-as-catholic-church-in-germany-aims-to-put-laity-on-same-level-as-bishops/?utm_source=most_recent&utm_campaign=usa. |
| ↑11 | See my discussion in The Trojan Horse under “Modernism: the Perennial Heresy,” 48-59. |
| ↑12 | Andreas Wailzer, “German bishops adopt text of ‘Synodal Conference’ seeking to give Church authority to laity,” LifeSiteNews (Feb. 25, 2026); avail. at https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/german-bishops-adopt-text-of-synodal-conference-seeking-to-give-church-authority-to-laity/. |
| ↑13 | Andreas Wailzer, “German bishops submit lay governance proposals to Vatican,” LifeSiteNews (April 1, 2026); avail. at https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/german-bishops-submit-lay-governance-proposals-to-vatican/. |
| ↑14 | See, e.g., Andreas Wailzer, “German cardinal criticizes parishes replacing Sunday Mass with Liturgy of the Word,” LifeSiteNews (April 1, 2026); avail. at https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/german-cardinal-critcizes-parishes-replacing-sunday-mass-with-liturgy-of-the-word/ |
| ↑15 | For a listing of all nine members, see https://www.ncregister.com/cna/these-are-the-members-of-the-synod-on-synodality-study-groups. |
| ↑16 | “Synod, October 7: Cardinal Hollerich calls for suggestions to make Church less ‘pyramidal’; women’s ministry discussion resurfaces,” Catholic Culture (Oct. 8, 2024); avail. at https://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=63572. N.B.: reference to the Instrumentum Laboris. |
| ↑17 | Simon Caldwell, “Church teaching on gay sex is ‘false’ and can be changed,” Catholic Herald (Feb. 3, 2022); avail. at https://catholicherald.co.uk/cardinal-hollerich-church-teaching-on-gay-sex-is-false-and-can-be-changed/. |
| ↑18 | Michael Haynes, “Here’s who will oversee the drafting of the Synod on Synodality’s final report,” LifeSiteNews (Oct. 8, 2024); avail. at https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/heres-who-will-oversee-the-drafting-of-the-synod-on-synodalitys-final-report/. |
| ↑19 | Dec. 8, 2016; avail. at https://www.clerus.va/content/dam/clerus/documenti/ratio-2026/Ratio-EN-2017-01-03.pdf. |
| ↑20 | Part I Ecclesiological-Pastoral Preamble. 1. Conversion of Relationships |
| ↑21 | The fifth and final part of my essay, which contains links to the previous four parts, is avail. at https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/pope-leos-silence-on-the-lgbt-agenda-is-fueling-sexual-revolution-in-the-church/. |
| ↑22 | In fact, in his first words spoken from the loggia on May 8, 2025, newly-elected Pope Leo XIV referenced the importance of synodality in his pontificate: “To all of you, brothers and sisters in Rome, in Italy, throughout the world: we want to be a synodal Church…”; Pope Leo XIV, “Peace be with all of you,” Vatican News (May 8, 2025); avail. at https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2025-05/pope-leo-xvi-peace-be-with-you-first-words.html. |
| ↑23 | See Gaetano Masciullo, “Heterodox Cardinal Hollerich calls Synod report on women in the Church a ‘big step’,” LifeSiteNews (April 14, 2026); avail. at https://www.lifesitenews.com/analysis/heterodox-cardinal-hollerich-calls-synod-report-on-women-in-the-church-a-big-step/, who quotes Cardinal Hollerich, Relator General of the Synod on Synodality, saying: “I cannot imagine, in the long term, how a Church can survive, if half of the People of God suffer because they have no access to ordained ministry.” |
| ↑24 | See Pope Francis’ Oct. 17, 2015 address commemorating the 50th anniversary of the institution of the Synod of Bishops by Pope Paul VI, where Francis refers to the Church as “an inverted pyramid” in which “the top is located beneath the base. Consequently,” he says, “those who exercise authority are called ‘ministers,’ because, in the original meaning of the word, they are the least of all” (emphasis added); avail. at https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2015/october/documents/papa-francesco_20151017_50-anniversario-sinodo.html. |
| ↑25 | See my discussion in The Trojan Horse under subheading, “Protestantization of the Church,” 42-45. |
| ↑26 | Michael S. Rose, Goodbye, Good Men: How Liberals Brought Corruption into the Catholic Church (Washington, D.C.: Regnery Pub., 2002). |
| ↑27 | See, e.g., The Trojan Horse, 97-98; and my article penned back in 2018 (anonymous), “Priest explains how Amoris Laetitia was really written to ‘normalize’ homosexuality,” LifeSiteNews (May 14, 2018); avail. at https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/priest-explains-how-amoris-laetitia-was-really-written-to-normalize-homosex. As pointed out earlier in this essay, Gerhard Cardinal Müller, who attended all the meetings of both sessions of the Synod on Synodality, pointed out that “all these so-called synodal reflections are aimed at preparing us to accept homosexuality.” |
| ↑28 | Cardinal Carlos Castillo Mattasoglio, archbishop of Lima, Peru, and member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, was the coordinator for Study Group 9; for a listing of all seven members of the group, see Hannah Brockhaus for CNA, “These are the Members of the Synod on Synodality Study Groups,” National Catholic Register (July 9, 2024); avail. at https://www.ewtnnews.com/vatican/these-are-the-members-of-the-synod-on-synodality-study-groups. |
| ↑29 | See, e.g., “Synod Study Group Report on LGBTQ+ Issues Is Released; New Ways Ministry Responds,” and “Statement of Francis DeBernardo, Executive Director, New Ways Ministry,” NewWaysMinistry.org (May 6, 2026); both avail. at https://www.newwaysministry.org/2026/05/06/synod-study-group-report-on-lgbtq-issues-is-released-new-ways-ministry-responds/. |
| ↑30 | CCC 1867 lists “the sin of the Sodomites” as one of the “sins that cry to Heaven,” citing Gen 18:20 and 19:13; cf. Jude 7, which says that “Sodom and Gomorrah, and the surrounding towns, which … indulged in sexual promiscuity and practiced unnatural vice, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.” |
| ↑31 | Final Report of Study Group 9, III, 2.4. |
| ↑32 | In 2007, then bishop Paglia commissioned a well-known homosexual artist to paint a blasphemous mural in the sanctuary of his diocesan cathedral, which depicts Jesus lifting two nets to heaven filled with “naked and semi-nude homosexuals, transsexuals, prostitutes, and drug dealers, jumbled together in erotic interactions,” and in which the genitals of Jesus are visible beneath a see-through garment; see story at LifeSiteNews (March 3, 2017); avail. at https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/leading-vatican-archbishop-featured-in-homoerotic-painting-he-commissioned/. The artist stated that Bishop Paglia oversaw every detail of his work, and there was not “a sexual intention, but erotic, yes.” N.B.: This link contains a video describing (in Italian) in detail the mural, as well as other scandalous information about Paglia. |
| ↑33 | Gaetano Mascuillo, “Abp. Paglia: Francis wanted to ‘adapt doctrine to the new times’ on homosexuality, moral theology” (May 26, 2026); avail. at https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/abp-paglia-francis-wanted-to-adapt-doctrine-to-the-new-times-on-homosexuality-moral-theology/. The interview was on May 21 with the Italian outlet Settimana News. |
| ↑34 | See Müller, Foreword, The Trojan Horse. As noted earlier, Cardinal Müller insists that “all these so-called synodal reflections are aimed at preparing us to accept homosexuality.” |
| ↑35 | See The Trojan Horse, 87-105, in which I critique Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love), especially numbers 299-305 and footnote 351 in which he discusses the role of conscience in moral decision-making, and in practice places subjective conscience over the objective moral law – which opens the door to allowing homosexual sodomy. |
| ↑36 | See Fiducia Supplicans; also, Andreas Wailzer, “Cardinal Marx implements Fiducia Supplicans ‘blessings’ for ‘couples of all gender identities’,” LifeSiteNews (April 21, 2026); avail. at https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/cardinal-marx-implements-fiducia-supplicans-blessings-for-couples-of-all-gender-identities/; and Pope Leo XIV’s response to journalists when he criticized Cardinal Marx’s announcement that in his archdiocese “formal” blessings will be bestowed on homosexual and other couples in sinful relationships; but then Leo went on to defend Fiducia Supplicans and the bestowal of “informal” blessings on couples who actively practice homosexual sodomy when they spontaneously ask for a blessing; avail. at https://www.lifesitenews.com/analysis/pope-leo-xiv-affirms-informal-blessing-for-homosexual-couples-and-downplays-sexual-sin/. |
| ↑37 | See final report of Study Group 9, III, 2.1. |
| ↑38 | Ibid. |
| ↑39 | Report of Study Group 9, I, 1.1. |
| ↑40 | See Patrick B. Craine, “Vatican changes translation from ‘welcoming’ to ‘providing for’ homosexuals in Synod mid-term report,” LifeSiteNews (Oct. 16, 2014); avail. at https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/reporters-criticize-vatican-for-dropping-welcoming-language-in-new-english. |
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The new “synodal church” will operate in democratic fashion. Faith and morals will be taught, and decisions on Church governance will be made, not according to a hierarchical structure of authority as willed by its Founder, Jesus Christ – i.e., by the successor to Peter, the Church’s earthly head, and by bishops, successors to the Apostles, in union with the pope – but rather according to a “synodal process” in which everyone – bishops, priests and laity (including non-Catholic Christians, and even non-Christians) – “journeys” together, everyone “shares” and “listens” to one another, everyone “has a voice” and “is heard” – in modernistic fashion as mandated by the Synod’s Final Document.[7]
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