Transcription
Hey everyone, welcome back to the Michael Loftton Show on Reason and Theology.
So, the Senate interim report has just been released today on a Monday morning, 28 pages long, giving us an update to the 10 study groups commissioned by Pope Francis back in 2023 as part of the Cenodal process. They are giving us an update on how their 10 different study groups are going. These are study groups on a number of questions, some hot button topics, others not so much. So they are studying questions related to the Eastern Catholic churches and maybe updating the code of canon law for the Eastern churches. Updating the code of canon law or making some changes canonically with the Latin right code of canon law. Um, studying the question of women deaconesses as well as LGBTQ issues and ministries in the church, polygamy and how to accompany people in Africa who are in polygamous unions. Um, quite a number of things.
And so they're all giving an update and then notifying everyone what we already knew and that is they're going to be submitting their final reports in December. But we kind of have an idea of what those reports are going to look like. And you know, I told y'all that uh Pope Leo has called all of the cardinals to Rome as part of an extraordinary consistory. So this is big picture important stuff, not just to you know, um create new cardinals or something like that an ordinary consistory, but these are uh you know, a meeting with all of the cardinals of the world in early January, January 7th and 8th. And I speculated it probably has something to do with these study reports that will come due in December. And so I want to talk about a few of them, especially the the hot button topics because those are going to be the ones that are making their uh rounds in the news cycle and people have um an interest in finding out what exactly is going on here. So that's what I want to discuss with all of you today, coming up next on the Michael Loftton Show.
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All right, so I'm going to show y'all some snippets from this 28-page interim report as well as a good overview of it. Let me maybe just give you a quick introduction to what I'm seeing at least on the hot button conversations like LGBT Catholics and questions on inclusion and how to pastorally accompany people who are same-sex attracted as well as um the female diaconate, polygamy, all of that. Um, you know, the big picture here is that the document appears to focus on and calls for a pastoral approach to these conversations. Rather than have a one-size-fits-all solution for every region in the world, it appears to want to call for more decentralized regional conversations on these questions to allow local Episcopal conferences to come up with a pastoral plan on how best to accompany persons of same-sex attraction or, you know, people in same-sex unions, or um people in polygamous unions, rather than again, give a one-size-fits-all solution for the entire church. It wants to see a conversation on the local level and it wants to see along with that, the decentralization process continue in the church. That may include some updates to the code of canon law for the authority behind Episcopal conferences. There's some conversation on that. But the big idea is rather than focus on the doctrine in teaching, let's talk about how to pastorally accompany people in light of the doctrine, but how can we meet people where they're at and pastorally minister to them in a way that fits for each region and might look different for each region, but also in a way that doesn't introduce doctrinal contradictions among the various regions. It's wanting to kind of balance that out. But these are themes that we've been seeing for well over a decade. Decentralization, pastoral accompaniment, you know, in reality, we have often seen a tension between the doctrine and the discipline or the doctrine and the pastoral practice. You know, although those things should not be in tension, we have often seen them in tension with each other. You know, where we'll see some kind of lip service paid to the doctrine, but then we have a pastoral accommodation that in in some ways may seemingly undermine the doctrine while simultaneously affirming the doctrine, but saying it's different because this is pastoral practice. We're being pastoral, or accompanying people. We've kind of seen that tension going on for a while here and you know, some may argue that that is is still going on uh in this document and there's going to be more of a call for that on the regional level. So that's a quick quick introduction to the conversation of what we're seeing with this.
Now on the question of the female diaconate, it doesn't make any final decisions. What it does is it says, "Okay, our study group, we're submitting our findings over to the study group that the dicastery for the doctrine of the faith has." You know, if you recall, there's been several dicastery commissions that have been uh tasked over the last few decades with studying the question of restoring and reviving the female diaconate in the Catholic Church. We've seen some other communities do it. The Alexandrian patriarch and Eastern Orthodox, he has revived women deaconesses. Some of the Oriental Orthodox already have it. Of course, the Anglicans long ago went to that, right? As well as a couple next steps above that. Um, and there's been a lot of conversation and people wanting to see an introduction of uh female clerics at the very least in the diaconate. So, there's been a lot of conversation about this. And so once again, there's been a new study group that was commissioned under Pope Francis to study this by the Dicastery for the doctrine of the faith. That's that doctrinal arm of the Pope in the Vatican. And we know that their report is going to be due December 31st. So the dicastery's report and their findings on the question will be due then and submitted uh before then or at that time. And so what this this study group did, the synodal study group did is they said, and rather than publish our own findings, we're just going to submit it to the DDF, the Dicastery for the doctrine of the faith, and they'll include our findings along with their own in their own report in December. So, they're not making any kind of doctrinal u claim necessarily um or at least not as of this time. They're not making any decisions as of this time. Not that they really have that ability necessarily in and of themselves to do anyway, but rather just researching it, studying it, and sending their findings to the DDF. The dicastery itself will then submit its report, its findings, its conclusions in December to the Pope. And the Pope then will decide what to do. You know, whether or not he's going to reintroduce the female diaconate or say, no, we're going to hold off on that and or maybe just publish a document on what exactly this was historically. Was it sacramental or not? And you know, there's a number of options that he could go with this. But um it is interesting that again, just a few days after that report will be published, the cardinals will all be in Rome. Perhaps he will discuss the findings on the female diaconate as well as these other study groups, the findings, and then submit it to the cardinals and say, "Hey guys, what do you think?" You know, give me your feedback. Tell me what you think about this. Tell me what you think about that. I want to hear from you. You know, I want to hear pushback. I want to hear your affirmations. I I want to hear whatever you have. And then, you know, hears that out, listens to it, and then eventually publishes a or multiple documents on a number of topics and subjects and maybe um updates the code of canon law and gives gives Episcopal conferences more authority to settle questions regionally at the very least on the pastoral level. And maybe revive the female diaconate or say, "You know what? No, now now's not the time. You know, this is not opportune. We're clericalizing women and we already have a problem with clericalization in the church." You know, those are some comments he's made before on the question. So maybe he'll just come and say, you know, I'm I'm not in favor of this at this time or or whatever, right? Um so I I think however the two are related, most certainly the study group, the diaconate uh findings for the dicastery and the meeting in January, I think it's all related and it's part of that process of catholicity and listening and hearing what others have to say in this particular case, the cardinals, and then maybe after he finds and gets a lot of feedback, then he'll pull the bishops and the bishops will have conversations in their own dioceses with the priests and with the faithful, and then they'll submit their findings back up to the Pope, and then he'll publish a document or something. I suspect that's what is uh the process that's taking place right now. I don't know what the conclusions will be. I mean, I don't know the future, but I think that's the process that we're witnessing right now.
Um, so yeah, here's the part on the theological canonical matters regarding specific ministerial forms on the diaconate. Here's here's what they say in their own words. [snorts] A special word must be reserved for the question of women's access to the diaconate. During the second session of the 16th ordinary general assembly of the synod of bishops, the Holy Father Pope Francis of venerated memory reactivated the work of the second study commission on the female diaconate because again, there was a previous study commission already on this which he had established some years prior. All synodal contributions related to this subject have been forwarded to that commission for its consideration. So they submitted their findings to them. The Dicastery expects to deliver without delay the final outcome of its work in the coming months. Specifically, we we have from Fernandez December 31st. Um, so that's that for the uh female diaconate part. There's not a lot about it because they're just kind of punting the question to the Dicastery for the doctrine of the faith.
Um, now if we go to the other part here on the hot button topics like LGBT conversations, homosexuality, stuff like that. Uh, there is a study report here, study group nine, Theological Criteria and Synodal Methodologies for Shared Discernment of Controversial Doctrinal, Pastoral and Ethical Issues. Ethical issues. And you know, it has a very fascinating footnote here, right? It's always interesting to read the footnote. Sometimes you find more substantive things in the footnote than you find in the actual document text. This footnote really caught my attention in this conversation of controversial questions and ethical issues. It says this, "Not all discussions of doctrinal, moral, or pastoral issues need to be settled by interventions of the Magisterium." Full stop. Wow. That is quite the statement. Um, you know, in reality, I I think I have to disagree with that. [laughter] I I kind of feel like gosh, that's exactly what we need from the Magisterium right now, right? Not all discussions of doctrinal, moral, or pastoral issues need to be settled by interventions of the Magisterium. Unity of teaching and practice is certainly necessary in the Church. Okay, that's good. But this does not preclude various ways of interpreting some aspects of that teaching or drawing certain consequences from it. There's that crack in the door that some people are going to try to slip in their agenda. Right? Each country or region, moreover, can seek solutions better suited to its culture and sensitive to its traditions and local needs. That's comes across as double speak. On the one hand, it says, "Yeah, you we have to have uniformity in teachings and practice, but we still have to allow for diversity in the ways we interpret and implement and draw certain conclusions from the teachings and that will be regional and vary according to local needs and traditions and cultures." And you know, [laughter] I don't know if you can have it both ways, right? I just don't know if you can. It seems to me like you either have to say we're going to have uniformity in teachings and practice or we're going to have this other diversity kind of stuff. I just don't think it's possible to have both. Maybe they're going to try to walk that fine line and somehow come out with a really genius way of of checking all the boxes. I I don't know. I I personally don't see it happen because I think that some regions will come to certain conclusions and draw certain consequences and interpretations from the teaching than other regions will. And it will be under the guise of well, this is pastoral. This is part of the culture. We're being sensitive to the traditions in our region. We're not denying the doctrine. We're just properly applying it. We're interpreting it according to our needs. I think that's the language in which people can smuggle in whatever they want, whatever conclusion that they want in their region while paying lip service to some nominal uniformity and theology and practice. So that bit is a little concerning to me because that that's that's the language that liberals will weasel their way um, you know, into the church and uh attempt to do certain things that I think are in contradiction with the teachings and the universal practice. Um, so that part was a little troubling. You know, there there's some other points in the same study group, proposed structure of the document to clarify what the paradigm shift consists of, that in continuity with Vatican II and the new phase of evangelization outlined in Evangelii Gaudium is emerging within the synodal experience. This transformation intimately affects both the theological dimension and the anthropological cultural sphere in a closely interrelated manner. What what is all of this talk about? This is fancy ways of describing what we are seeing and that is what it explicitly says, a paradigm shift. It says there has been a paradigm shift in the post-conciliar period on some of these ethical questions. We need to have a conversation about that and we need to um examine this transformation that both balances out the theological conversation as well as the anthropological and cultural sphere. Why is that curious language? Well, because that is exactly what the liberals attempt to use to say that homosexuality is not disordered. Rather, they'll argue it's an anthropological situation and uh from anthropological and cultural and sociological studies, we know that this isn't intrinsically disordered, this is part of the human experience and so we have to factor that in in the conversation with the theological dimension. This is the way that, you know, your Father James Martin's of the world attempt to say, I affirm the teachings of the Church and then I affirm all this other stuff. I could see people attempting to use that conversation for that agenda. In the Synod's final document, this shift can be perceived in the emphasis placed on the practical sphere. And it says the principle of pastorality may be proposed as an interpretive horizon to express this paradigm shift. How do we account for the fact that there's been a paradigm shift in the post-conciliar period after Vatican II on some of these ethical questions? Well, it says the principle of pastorality is how we do that. Which is that conversation about, well, yeah, there's the theology on the one hand, there's the doctrine on the one hand, but then there's the pastoral way in which we implement that theology. And pastoral accompaniment is supposed to be in accord with the theology, right? In practice, a lot of times the pastoral accompaniment is is 100% at odds with the teaching. But when there's a focus on the principle of pastorality, kind of putting that at the top, and then paying a nominal lip lip service to tradition and scripture and doctrine and theology. Um, what we end up having very [clears throat] often is a massive tension and gap between the two where the pastoral accompaniment supersedes the doctrine and contradicts the doctrine in many cases. Um, you know, we can already see that with the distribution of communion to Eastern Orthodox, for example, or uh Anglicans, certain Anglicans, certain, well, all Old Catholics, um, in sometimes in rare cases, Protestants, but more so normatively with Eastern Orthodox, no questions asked, no um, on Rome's part, um, requirements, you know, any Eastern Orthodox can go into any Catholic church, receive communion, no questions asked. They don't have to check off certain boxes. They don't have to do any, they're entitled to receive communion. And yet they're um not in full communion with the Catholic Church. Well, um, you know, the doctrine is that those who are um not in the fullness of the full communion of the Church uh don't share the fullness of the faith since they deny certain dogmas and and to use maybe archaic and outdated language, in schism. Um, you know, that situation says, okay, uh persons in that condition should not be receiving communion in a Catholic church. And yet the pastoral practices give them communion even though it's at odds with the ecclesiology. So there's here a doctrinal ecclesiological dimension and then the pastoral disciplinary dimension that aren't entirely coherent. And you know, Vatican II attempts to talk about that a little bit about, you know, about that conversation as does uh some other post-conciliar documents, but I don't know if there's been a full resolution in in explaining the tension there. But that's a perfect example of how sometimes the pastoral accompaniment can be at odds with and in tension with the doctrine. If you have that with Eastern Orthodox, um, you can then start to see why we just saw recently, you know, three priests confirm a practicing homosexual with his homosexual partner functioning as the spouse, and there was clearly no repentance required for them to convert. Well, you say, well, look, that's contrary to the teachings of the Church. Absolutely, precisely, 100%. But it's that idea of we have to accompany people. You have to be pastoral. Even though that pastoral mode is in this particular case, in that instance, completely at odds with the teaching, are we going to see more of that, more of an introduction of that where those things are accepted not theologically, not doctrinally, not on paper, but rather in practice and in pastoral accompaniment. If that's the case, I don't know what good the doctrine is, as I'll continue to say. At that point, you might as well just get rid of the doctrine.
Here's the part that I notice is really making its rounds on on Twitter. Some emerging issues, which we find more appropriate to designate thus rather than as controversial, will be addressed in a manner that offers an operational dimension to the proposal's advance. Listen to that. It's deliberately and explicitly saying we want to get way away from the question of controversial topics like homosexuality and rather we want to frame it as emerging issues. So not controversial issues, emerging issues. I think that shift in framing is to downplay the gravity of this end. I think that's the entire purpose of this and to also make it um less controversial, pun intended, with the uh secular world. But it outright says outright says this emer we need to use language of emerging issues rather than controversial. The goal will not be to provide solutions that apply to all cases. So, so the idea is, you know, we don't want to give a one-size-fits-all answer on these not controversial questions, emerging issues. Um, we want to let different local regions decide the pastoral approach that will be taken on these questions. And it explicitly says, for example, what would be these emerging controversial issues that we don't want a one-size-fits-all solution for? Homosexuality. Homosexuality. Okay. Right there. Homosexuality. Okay. So, that's the number one emerging issue that it lists here. It says though for these cases, a concise presentation will be offered of the positions upheld by tradition and the Magisterium. The new questions that have recently emerged, concluding with some questions to be addressed in the discernment process, mentioning the principal references drawn from scripture and anthropology, including contributions from the scientific disciplines. Well, see, that's the that's the angle that people use to smuggle in the idea that homosexuality is not intrinsically disordered because they'll say science and anthropology and sociology shows us that this is natural to humans. So, that's where you get that kind of ambiguous language in the catechism of the origins of this still kind of remains unknown, origins of homosexual attraction. Um, this is the crack that they're going to try to slip. Some people will try to slip, you know, their agenda through the door. Um, so yeah, this is I think the opposite approach than the one that needs to be taken rather than reframing the conversation, rather than saying, you know what, we're not going to provide a one solution that applies to all cases. We're going to we're going to allow for it to be determined kind of regionally. Rather than that, I do think that the Magisterium needs to take the reins and assert itself and say, "We're shutting the door on this conversation. No more. Stop it." You know, what you guys are doing is attempting to circumvent the doctrine, to bypass the doctrine while paying lip service to it, to circumvent it, and we're no longer to play going to play that game. Uh, unfortunately, it's it's taken the opposite direction here, right? Uh, and their final report on this conversation and their recommendations will be submitted by December 2025.
Then it does have a few other study groups, one in polygamy where they want to explore potential responses to what pastoral care is appropriate for those found in polygamous relationships according to the Gospel. See, the framing is not the conversation of doctrine. The doctrine's clear, right? You can't have more than one uh marriage according to the dogma of the Council of Trent. So the doctrine's clear that one, the conversation has kind of been, you know, ended doctrinally. So what some attempt to do is they ask, okay, yeah, there's the doctrine, but how, how far can we stretch the application of this to particular circumstances in light of people who are living in polygamy? How far can we stretch the pastoral accompaniment card? How far can we go without, you know, violating the Gospel or the dogma? Um, that's effectively what's being discussed there in very fancy language. Um, and there's supposed to be a polyg polygamy document coming out from the Vatican on this question at some point soon. So, um, I'll cover that whenever it does. Make sure to hit the subscribe button so you know what when I go live for that.
Um, you know, if you look here at Vatican News, sharing my screen just very briefly. Um, it has a quick uh summary of the uh study groups here. So it notes 20 months after their establishment at the behest of Pope Francis, who wanted closer collaboration between the Dicasteries of the Roman Curia and the General Secretariat of the Synod, the 10 study groups called upon to examine the issues that emerged during the two sessions of the Synod on synodality released their interim reports today. You can find it online here. 28 pages, like I said, uh, it's um called Interim Report of the Study Groups of the Canonical Commission of the CCAM Commission on Polygamy and Presentation of the Study Groups on Liturgy. This is a step forward after the presentation of the first reports during the second session of the Assembly in October 2024. The topics are varied from mission in the digital world to ministries and women's participation in the Church, from relations between Eastern Catholic Church and the Latin Church to the role of Nuncios and the choice of bishops, from ecumenism to controversial doctrinal issues, better defined as emerging issues, such as violence against women in the context of war. Interesting, they picked that one out instead of homosexuality. That's a little conspicuous from Vatican News. I don't know. Oh well. Um, along with the reports, the contributions of the Canon Law Commission and CAM on the challenge of polygamy, as well as that of the group on the liturgy in a synodal perspective, were also presented for the first time. What exactly were they saying about liturgy? They're asking questions of how do we involve women more in the liturgy? Um, as well as, let me maybe pull it up here. Okay. Well, missed my place on it. I'll have to pull it up here in the electronic document with a keyword search. But one thing that is discussed there is the uh question of women's role and participation in the liturgy among other things, as well as um decentralizing the liturgy to one degree or another. That's a big theme that's highlighted in that portion of the document from what I read. Uh, so decentralizing some elements of the liturgy, you know, allowing for different regions and Episcopal conferences to kind of have more diversity in the way they celebrate the Mass and the liturgy according to the customs of their culture and stuff like that. Um, so a little less uniform uh uniformity liturgically in in some aspects.
Okay. So um talks about relations with the Eastern Churches, how to accompany those who don't really have a lot of clergy in their area and maybe updating the Eastern Code of Canon Law. It talks about mission in the digital environment. Um, revision of the ratio unpriestly formation, participation of women in the Church. Um, relations between bishops, consecrated life and ecclesial associations, the figure and ministry of the bishop. Uh, the role of Nuncios, these are the representatives of the Pope, controversial doctrinal issues like homosexuality, um, ecumenism, again, the liturgy, uh, canon law commission, updating the code of canon law, and then polygamy. So yeah, um, we will find out more beyond this interim report soon. Because December 31st is right around the corner and you know, they may publish their results publicly December 31st and we'll see what they say and then we'll find out one week later um what Pope Leo is going to be doing with the cardinals as they meet in Rome. I suspect we'll find out well before then, right? But it is almost absolutely certain that the meeting, the extraordinary consistory is going to be related to these reports that are due one week prior. I mean, there's just no way they're not related. I mean, think about it. If you're the Pope and you have these study groups that are publishing their results, don't you want to get some feedback from the College of Cardinals? Of course you do. Of course you would. It makes sense to hold a consistory saying, "Hey, what do you guys think of of the study groups and what they're saying here? And let's maybe have more conversations about that. Uh, let's let's start to let's break the ice here, but maybe invite you guys back. I want you all to read it and and come back and meet in a month or, you know, I I'm sure that's what, you know, that meeting is is going to be about." And uh, I I guess we'll find out confirmation soon. Again, I think before these study groups publish their report, I think we'll find out what the agenda is. And as soon as we do, I will uh certainly let you know. Make sure to hit the like button and hit the subscribe button so you know when I go live with updates.
And I do want to remind y'all on the question of the Magisterium. You know, that's kind of my forte, my area of expertise, the teaching authority of the Church. And you know, I have a lecture coming up in one week on the question of, can Catholic doctrine change according to the Magisterium? You know, does the Magisterium say that Catholic doctrine can change or does it say it's immutable? Uh, does it have a middle position? You know, we're going to talk about that conversation. So if you want to sign up for that uh course and reserve your spot and participate in the Q&A, go ahead and do it now. rtcourses.com. Once you purchase it, you'll get 40% off my Magisterium bundle right here. Magisterial Studies Program. All 30 lectures that I teach at the university level on the question of the teaching authority of the Church, its history, an introduction to what it is, how it's structured, how it works, and then how to read and evaluate magisterial documents. So, we're going to have that conversation. This is more needed than ever. Very, very timely in light of all the stuff that we're seeing going on in the Vatican. You definitely want to be able to understand what is authoritative, what is not, what can change, what cannot change. Um, okay. So, go and check that out. rtcourses.com. Everybody, again, hit that like button, hit the subscribe button, and stay uh tuned for more updates. We'll see you later. God bless you all.