Who Will Have the Synodality Synod’s Ear? by Paul Krause

By Paul Krause, Crisis Magazine, Dec. 14, 2021

Paul Krause a teacher, writer, and campus minister. He is the author of The Odyssey of Love: A Christian Guide to the Great Books (Wipf and Stock, 2021).

As someone who is primarily employed by the Church and working with young adults, I have seen how our diocesan infrastructure is moving toward its “all-in” embrace of the Synod on Synodality. Documents have been sent to us on how to meet and have “listening groups,” how “positivity” and not “negativity” should be the focus of our reports, and how we should pay particular focus to the “minority report.” Without question, from the rhetoric, documents, and the general tone advanced, the Synod on Synodality won’t be impartial or objective; its goal is to emphasize what faithful Catholics already sense: promotion of doctrinal reform.

This won’t dissuade me from what I’ve been tasked with accomplishing. But it does cause one major question to arise. Who is the Synod directed to and who do they intend to listen to? …