The Synod, The Steamroller, And The Rubber Wall.

Quick! Ready by tomorrow 2 pm!

I write this on Friday afternoon, when the draft of the final documents should be already in the hands of the bishops. Apparently, it will be a 100 page work. In 100 pages – however thickly or thinly written – there is plenty of opportunity for the smuggling of heresy. Therefore, the Synod Father had better read very attentively, talk to each other, and remain in contact with their colleagues in the motherland.

We – and they – are now facing the last battle of this Synod. If this one goes badly wrong, a lot of damage can be sill caused. Not because of the prescriptive, much less juridical value of the document in itself – which will not amount to much -, but because the Kasperites will try to exploit every possibility buried in the text for the future battles. Battles which, as I am sure you realise, did not finish yesterday morning.

What would have been the best way to go into these battles? Of course, you know my answer: the kicking of the Synod in its nether regions through a massive, open, very vocal walkout.

With the benefit of hindsight we can now say that most Synod Fathers felt confident enough that the Kasperites would be clearly defeated, and therefore decided that the walkout – as a clearly extreme measure – was not warranted. However, as the Synod goes into its last days one effect of the failure to walk out is apparent: heresy was openly discussed, and presented to the world by prelates still in possession of their cassock at the end of it.

The likes of Marx, Kasper and Cupich got a stage to present their heresies. They were defeated, but they should not have been allowed to occupy the stage in the first place. They will now look for another stage, and then another one. In time, the idea of not even allowing debates about heresy will become more and more difficult to present.

Whatever the Synod votes, the document will not have any juridical effect. It will be, whether heretical or not, another statement in a world drowning in information. Bar enormous heretical novelties, it will be forgotten in 10 days. Is the sake of such a document worth the heretical scandal? No. The walkout, on the contrary, would have given this Synod a historical significance vastly superior than even the best outcome we can hope now.

The Bishops found themselves with a heretical beast in their room. Instead of going out and gas the place, they chose to stay and tame the beast. The beast is now apparently tamed, but it is still alive, and still dangerous. This is not the way you deal with dangerous beasts. This heresy should have been put to sleep, and this papacy with it.

Alas, this was too brave and too Catholic for cautious V II bishops. They preferred the typical Italian solution of the muro di gomma, the “rubber wall”, instead. The rubber wall is soft when you collide with it. It goes very gently with you. It wants you to know it is very concerned that you don't get hurt. But in the end, it does not let you pass.

Up to now, the rubber wall has served rather well.

But the steamroller would have been best.

M