The Decomposition of Synodality, by Dominic V. Cassella

By Dominic V. Cassella, The Catholic Thing, October 22, 2024

Dominic V. Cassella, a doctoral student at the Catholic University of America, is the Executive Director of Theosis Academy, an online website dedicated to Catholic-Orthodox education and ecumenical dialogue located in Fairfax, Virginia. Mr. Cassella is also Editorial and Online Assistant at The Catholic Thing.

Today, October 22, 2024, marks the twentieth anniversary of the death of Louis Bouyer, the French Catholic priest who is seen as too Progressive by some traditionalist Catholics and too traditional by many liberal Catholics. With Hans Urs von Balthasar and Joseph Ratzinger, however, Bouyer was among the founders of the great scholarly journal Communio and a prolific author.

He attended the Second Vatican Council as a peritus – an expert theologian invited to advise the bishops. After the Council, Bouyer published a book that he knew would make him enemies and cause him much grief: The Decomposition of Catholicism.

“Catholicism” in this context is not the Catholic Church. “Catholicism,” as Bouyer understands it, is a movement within the Church, almost an ideology, that had gained disproportionate control over the Church’s governance. …

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