A synodal study group established by Pope Francis to discern Catholic teaching on controversial issues, such as sexuality and life, is using a “new paradigm,” focusing on personal experiences and deemphasizing moral absolutes and established Catholic teaching.
The group, created in February to present proposals on “matters of great relevance” from the 2023 Synod on Synodality session, handed over its findings to the assembly on Wednesday.
Instead of relying on the established church practice of using doctrines formed and based on divine revelation and applying those teachings to the modern world, the synod study group inverted that standard by emphasizing listening to people’s lived experiences, observing cultural changes, and letting that inform the church’s approach.
“Ethically speaking, it is not a matter of applying pre-packaged objective truth to the different subjective situations, as if they were mere particular cases of an immutable and universal law,” said the group’s status report. “The criteria of discernment arise from listening to the [living] self-gift of Revelation in Jesus in the today of the Spirit.”
As the National Catholic Register reports, the study group described its new approach as “conversion of thought or reform of practices in contextual fidelity to the Gospel of Jesus, who is ‘the same yesterday today and always,’ but whose ‘richness and beauty are inexhaustible.’”
News of this abrupt departure from tradition drew a sharp rebuke from Bishop Emeritus of Tyler, Texas, Joseph Strickland, who blasted the study group for its dismissal of “moral absolutes” and warned of where such an abandonment of morality would lead.
“This is simply wrong and leaders in the Church need to denounce it,” Strickland wrote on X. “There are moral absolutes and ignoring them is a sure path to the devastation of Hell.”
However, it is precisely the time-honored and established church teachings in which the study group aims.
Throughout their findings, church doctrine was made subservient to the group’s “new paradigm,” which seeks to establish an ever-evolving “morality” directed by the prevailing cultural winds at the time.
“Only a vital, fruitful, and reciprocal tension between doctrine and practice embodies the living Tradition and is able to counteract the temptation to rely on the barren [rigidity] of verbal pronouncements,” the report said.
The group’s findings should perhaps come as no surprise given the make-up of the 7-member panel.
Father Maurizio Chiodi, for example, who serves as a professor at the Pontifical John Paul II Theological Institute for Marriage and the Family Sciences and a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, has advocated for both contraceptive use among married couples and homosexual relationships “under certain conditions.”
Father Carlo Casalone, another member of the group who was also appointed to the Pontifical Academy by Francis, has advocated for assisted suicide in Italy.
As the National Catholic Register reports:
In a potential contrast to the group’s report, the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that the fundamental ‘modes of transmission’ of Christ’s revelation are Scripture and Tradition and that the authoritative interpretation of these sources ‘has been entrusted to the living teaching office of the Church alone.’ Christian revelation also includes absolute and universally applicable moral precepts, which do not appear subject to change based off subjective experience or widespread consultation.
The Synod on Synodality concludes on October 27. However, the ten study groups—of which the panel discerning matters of life and sexuality is a part—are scheduled to continue until June 2025.
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