As more details of the October Synod emerge, so does a clearer sense of its priorities. On 30 September the Synod will begin with an ecumenical vigil. A host of ecumenical guests have been invited. Much is being made of the fact that the Synod on Synodality is being begun with an ecumenical flourish.
Sr. Nathalie Becquart from the Synod of Bishops commented, “Synodality and ecumenism are two paths to be travelled together”. There are two responses to this strategy. One would be to look at the four categories of participants, which detail who can participate in what way, and the other is to reflect on what ecumenism has begun and what intention lies behind the strategy.
Ecumenism is one of those “nice” words which suggest broad-mindedness, warmth of heart, generosity of spirit. And indeed, it leads towards another category of broad-mindedness: interfaith encounters. In fact, during the three-day retreat that follows the ecumenical vigil there will be both ecumenical and inter-faith workshops. The Catholic representatives and ecumenical delegates (who are divided into four categories of participation) will be able to have encounters in seminars with each other, but also with Islam and Buddhism. The prescribed intention is to see what can be learnt from them.
There are of course two distinct philosophical outlooks in our rapidly evolving contemporary Western culture, and ecumenism looks different depending on which world view you adopt.
In the older view, which preferences the language of objective propositional truth, the fracture with the Protestants (the larger of the ecumenical partners) was partly about the Protestant rejection of the supernaturalism. An experience of the supernatural has always been a characteristic of the Catholic Church. It had fuelled the dynamic of evangelism as well as the faith and practice of the Church. At least it did until the Enlightenment arrived with a new pragmatic materialism which deeply distrusted the miraculous, drove a greater wedge between matter and spirit and produced Protestantism
The confrontation between those (Protestants) who denied the miraculous both in the Mass, and also in the extended world of the material, and those (Catholics) who experienced it, celebrated it and evangelised with it has proved as difficult to explain as to overcome and heal.
The newer view, which prefers the subjective and relative, sets out to solve the ecumenical Gordian knot by trying to dissolve it in a salve of niceness.
But it’s not obvious how attempts at compromise rather than persuasion and conversion can heal the ecumenical stand-off.
So if the new synodality and ecumenical ambition go hand in hand, what are Catholics intended to discover and achieve from the ecumenical dimension at the autumn Synod?
It is certainly true that there are aspects of reformed spirituality that are indeed impressive and lacking in the Catholic Church. An intimacy with the Bible has marked evangelicalism and become a powerful factor in resisting secularism. Equally, the energising of the laity has been more a quality of reformed spirituality than of Catholic practice. Both of these could be resources for a renewed Catholicism.
As could the fervour and pneumatic intimacy of Pentecostalism, one of the very few growing Protestant churches. But are these the intended ecumenical discoveries?
Because there is always also the dull, secularised politicised preoccupations of liberal Protestantism with sex, world peace and social justice. But these are characteristics of dying churches. Has the new Synodality developed a charism of discernment to value the spirituality of growing Protestant Churches and beware the preoccupations of dying ones? If so, there are no signs of it in Instrumentum Laboris.
So what are the lessons that the ecumenical dimension of the Synod intends to present? A familiarity with the Bible and Holy Spirit or a fixation with sex, politics and ecclesial decay?
For too long “that they may all be one” has been understood not as being about organic unity with Peter, but instead a homage to the Nice’ ‘that they may all get on better’. One set of ecclesial values being quite as authentic as another since there is no scale of historically validated Truth to assess them by.
The inevitable fear of many observers is that the working document for the Continental stage and Instrumentum Laboris show a preference for the old “integrity of encounter” over the hard work of discerning which values are genuinely Catholic and Christian and which aren’t.
But in fact things are more complex than that. We are at a particular hinge of history where relativism is being replaced with a new and different dogmatism. What is popularly described as “wokery” has none of the humility of relativism but instead displays all the ambitions of a new series of objective propositions that brooks no opposition.
It turns out that Instrumentum Laboris doesn’t just propose a flat hierarchy of subjectivity, but does after all value Truth.
However, it’s the truth not of the claims of the Faith, but of the new cultural order. It’s the truth of Diversity, Inclusion and Equity. And this paradoxically makes the task of contemporary ecumenism very much easier; easier even than that of the relativistic mutual admiration of the nice.
For all the liberal Protestant denominations have also energetically embraced the progressive project of making heaven on earth by pursuing global justice, ecological purity and re-education for all. Is it intended that the new cultural order should offer a glue capable of mending old historical divisions and healing past mutual misunderstandings? Is the universal religious devotion to a single view of Marx intended to replace the multiple historically diverging attractions to different versions of Jesus?
The ambitions of the new synodality are not however restricted to refreshing the waters of ecumenical encounter.
Once the new Synodalism has had the opportunity to engage in the mutual admiration of sub-Christian progressivism in an ecumenical dimension, the delegates or participants will be offered the opportunity to learn from other faiths. The three day retreat acting as a period of preparation will provide encounters with Islam and Buddhism.
In the world of inter-faith spirituality there are certain Twentieth Century tropes of appreciation which provide the norms of interfaith dialogue. The glass-half-full celebrates the Islamic capacity for the discipline of timetabled prayer at one end of the scale, and a penchant for mysticism which informs Sufism at the other. Will the participants be invited to encounter the Islamic suppression of women and execution of Christians for alleged blasphemy?
Buddhists are conventionally lauded for their dedication to inclusivity and aversion to dogmatism, though the more alert will remember more warily the cul-de-sac that Thomas Merton led so many into in his journey to the edge of syncretism.
It is considered the height of inter-faith impoliteness to recollect that the underlying repudiation of Jesus and the authority of the Christian Scriptures provides the dominant religious narrative for these alternative faith communities in their relationship with Christianity.
The task of learning anything substantial from other faiths may be a deeper one than inter-faith politeness envisages being possible. There will only be a few hours of encounter on the timetable. Yet any sensible encounter makes demands, or ought to, requiring more substantial reading, religious bilingualism and theological exploration. Anything less than that suggests that what is on offer is only a cosmetic encounter designed to big-up the credentials of the event, rather than offer a more profound encounter with the “other”.
But we will never know. Secrecy has been imposed to hide the pilgrimage into both interfaith and inter-religious syncretism.
At the heart of the whole process of the new synodalism there emerges a gap that begs such vital questions it is hard to know what can be achieved without confronting them head on. It is to do with the question of authority and epistemology.
In the series of mutual encounters that will take place between the representatives of conservative Catholicism and those who favour sexualised inclusion, between those who value hierarchy and those who want to destroy it, between those who treasure the supernatural and those who are more comfortable with the political, between those who are devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and those who are drawn to alternative heart-beats, which value system will prevail?
When the secrecy is lifted and the included have been embraced (but not changed), the marginalised have been moved to the new centre (marginalising others) and the powerless have gained the traction they coveted (presumably ejecting their predecessors), we will discover whether or not Catholicism has survived the transition into hyper-sexualised utopianism. The question remains as it always does: who will convert whom?
(Pope Francis arrives to take part in an ecumenical meeting at the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Geneva, on June 21, 2018 | DENIS BALIBOUSE/AFP via Getty Images)
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