IS SYNODALITY PROPERLY DEVELOPED, PALATABLE TO ORTHODOX CATHOLICS

Orthodox Catholics have a sort of uncharitable attitude toward the teacher's pet, Cardinal Blase Cupich because they think he's too progressive.

However, his intervention at the Vatican cabashed USCCB meeting recently was really rather orthodox and even Archbishops Cordilione and Chaput were on board with it. It keeps "power" in the hierarchy and doesn't delegate it to a parallel lay board when it comes to the supervision of bishops concerning the sexual abuse of minors and other vulnerable men by bishops.

You've heard of the "camel's nose in the tent" haven't you? Once you allow a new branch of government in the Church, one lay and the other bishops, you kind of become like the Anglican Communion's Episcopal Church in the USA. Then the Church becomes democratic and the next thing you know we are just like the Episcopal Church--post-Christian.

Thus this Crux excerpt should bring some consolation to orthodox Catholics, no?

News Analysis

• John L. Allen Jr.

How to read overlooking O’Malley to plan Rome abuse summit

There’s also a policy reading: That the panel signals a shift away from relying on parallel, victim-led responses to the crisis symbolized by O’Malley and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Ireland (also not named), towards a more “synodal,” bishops-led approach favored by Francis, and in which Cupich has been among his “go-to” leaders.

“Synodal” means bishops coming together to solve problems, and Francis has demonstrated his enthusiasm for it, most recently with a Synod of Bishops on young people in Rome last October - an assembly which stopped short of reaffirming a “zero tolerance” on abuse, saying it would be inappropriate ahead of the February meeting.

Finally, naming Cupich may also be an indication of which way Francis is trending in terms of how to impose accountability on bishops, since Cupich took lead on a proposal to rely on the Church’s traditional structure of metropolitan bishops rather than creating an independent lay commission once it became clear at the bishops’ November meeting in Baltimore that the latter may be hard to square with Church law.