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The Conciliar Circularity of Synodality, by Robert Royal – Brown Pelican Society of Lousiana

The Conciliar Circularity of Synodality, by Robert Royal

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Sisyphus by Titian (Tiziano Vecellio), 1548-49 [Museo del Prado, Madrid]. This is one of several paintings commissioned by Elizabeth of Hungary depicting mythological figures condemned by the gods to tasks of repetitive futility.

By Robert Royal, The Catholic Thing, October 23, 2024

Robert Royal is editor-in-chief of The Catholic Thing and president of the Faith & Reason Institute in Washington, D.C. His most recent books are Columbus and the Crisis of the West and A Deeper Vision: The Catholic Intellectual Tradition in the Twentieth Century.

 

Logicians have identified – and demolished – what they term a “circular argument.” Basically, to propose an example, a circular argument goes something like this:

The synodal Church is the Church foreseen by the Second Vatican Council.

Why?

Because the Second Vatican Council foresaw the synodal Church.

In a circular argument, the conclusion is in the premise – and that’s that.

For anyone proposing this particular argument, it doesn’t matter that Lumen gentium (“The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church”) never uses the term synodal as it is used here and doesn’t remotely suggest what the circular argument assumes. Yet the Gregorian University in Rome announced Monday that it will hold a three-day conference at the conclusion of the current synod titled, “From the Council to the Synod. Rereading a Church’s journey 60 years after Lumen Gentium (1964-2024).” …