Fr. Raymond J. de Souza: Dead Synodality

Sacrilege and synodality have come to the fore these last days.

For years the annual Religious Education Congress in Los Angeles has been a regular source of liturgical distress as various innovations test the bounds of reverence, not to say sacrilege. This year as the congress unfolded on the West Coast, the genuine sacrilege took place on the East Coast, at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. The “sacrilegious” – the apposite term of the cathedral rector – funeral for atheist transgender activist Cecilia Gentili was something of an ambush, with the surprised cathedral priests cutting it short and offering a Mass of Reparation for the outrages afterwards.

Father James Martin, SJ, to no one’s great surprise, had been invited to serve as ringmaster for that circus but, conveniently for him, he was on the other coast for the congress. It’s a pity the organizers didn’t think to invite Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, who might have found some suitable passages from his theo-erotic book Mystical Passion to read at the Gentili funeral, the deceased being described enthusiastically by one eulogist as the “mother of all whores.” A touch of cardinalitial erotic accompaniment would have fit it quite nicely. …