One, Many Cardinal Fernández Fiascos

'HSS Synodality took a serious hit last December with the fiasco of Fiducia supplicans regarding the blessing of same-sex couples, and began listing seriously to starboard.'

From The Catholic Thing

By Fr Raymond J. de Souza

The flagship of the fleet, the Holy See Ship Synodality, is in dire straits (leaks about the final document that will be issued today suggest it will be, for those with radical hopes, a disappointment). HSS Synodality took a serious hit last December with the fiasco of Fiducia supplicans regarding the blessing of same-sex couples, and began listing seriously to starboard.

The current synodal assembly on synodality in Rome has now delivered another shot on the port side; another fiasco has unfolded regarding women deacons. And the man responsible for both hits is Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, one of the most senior admirals in service on the barque of Peter.

HSS Synodality set sail when Pope Francis announced in March 2020 the commissioning of a great new ship. The synodal process on synodality for a synodal Church will thus mark its fifth anniversary early next year. It has sailed through some rough waters, but even after five years, it is not clear where exactly synodality is headed. HSS Synodality has thus been on a voyage without a destination.

Perhaps the purpose is the voyage, not the destination – the motto of travel agents and military recruiters for generations. It’s not about where the ship is headed but how it gets there. That’s why Cardinal Fernández has proved so deadly to synodality. In his navy, the admirals do not consult the petty officers – or even the commanders.

Opening this assembly of the synodal process, Pope Francis preached earlier this month that, “every word is to be received with gratitude and simplicity and can become an echo of what God has given for the good of our brothers and sisters.”

“The more we realize that we are surrounded by friends who love, respect and appreciate us, friends who want to listen to what we have to say, the more we will feel free to express ourselves spontaneously and openly,” the Holy Father said.

Openness, consultation, transparency, respect, listening – these are the hallmarks of synodality. All voices are to be heard. All are friends to be cherished.

Thus it was a mortal blow when, last December, having said nothing to anyone, Cardinal Fernández launched the Fiducia supplicans torpedo, authorizing blessings for same-sex couples. The reaction from the “starboard” side of the Church was fierce and was led by the African bishops. Fernández was forced to back down, in essence rescinding his own orders.

Some on the “port” side had welcomed the new orders – Captain James Martin, SJ, had implemented them immediately – though no one could defend them as being synodal in any sense. The synodal assembly of October 2023 had carefully decided not to mention the issue. Meanwhile, Cardinal Fernández was at work on authorizing same-sex blessings and kept it all clandestine. Synodality was exposed as a pretense.

HSS Synodality bravely sailed on though, limping and listing, a mutiny brewing. Pope Francis, knowing that the synodality could not suffer another such blow, decided in the months after Fiducia supplicans to set up “study groups” on ten themes, thereby removing all substantive issues from the synodal process. There would be no more damaging debates about where HSS Synodality was headed. There would only be reflections on enjoying the trip.

Midday: A Ship Offshore, foundering in a Storm by Claude-Joseph Vernet, 1751 [National Trust Collection, Uppark House, South Harting, England]

The study groups would not report until June 2025 – extending the synodal process past its fifth anniversary – but would provide an interim report in October 2024.

In July, the membership of the 15 study groups on the ten themes was announced. Group 5, however, charged with “the question of the necessary participation of women in the life and leadership of the Church” did not divulge its membership. It was only reported that it had “been entrusted to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.” Admiral Fernández would be at the helm.

Fernández dutifully gave his interim report earlier this month to the assembly. He confirmed that women deacons – meaning in Holy Orders – were not possible, something the Holy Father himself had stated flatly in the extra-synodal forum of 60 Minutes, to which he had granted an interview last April. Fernández did not shed light on how the discussion had unfolded or who had been consulted; he did not even reveal who was part of Study Group 5. It was all very secretive and not at all synodal – even though the Holy Father had charged the study groups with proceeding in a “synodal” manner.

The incoming fire on the port side was immediate and fierce. Captain Martin and others who were willing to cast synodality overboard when it suited their same-sex advocacy were not pleased about being cut out of the process when it came to women deacons.

The synod managers had a problem on their hands. The Fiducia supplicans fiasco had alienated many of those who were not keen on synodality to begin with. But on women deacons, the substitution of secrecy for synodality enraged those who were the most keen to board the HSS Synodality. This mutiny would be more serious.

An addition to synod schedule was hastily announced. Last Friday, there would be an opportunity to meet the study groups and have a bit of remedial synodal consultation.

It did not go well. Over a hundred – more than a quarter – of the synod delegates opted to attend the discussion with Study Group 5. Except that no members of Study Group 5 showed up, and their identities remained secret. Fernández dispatched two junior seamen from the doctrinal office to hand out an email address to which comments could be sent.

The port side was not amused. Indeed, “palpable outrage” was the theme, acknowledged even by Austen Ivereigh, an otherwise reliable booster of the synodal process. Within hours, Fernández tried to contain the damage by releasing a message apologizing for the “misunderstanding” and offering another meeting at which he would personally be present.

On Monday morning, Fernández addressed the issue again at the assembly itself, attempting to contain the fire below decks. He explained that Pope Francis had already shut the door on women deacons on 60 Minutes and elsewhere, that women in the diaconate did not address the actual situation of the vast majority of Catholic women, and that the Holy Father’s opening of the ministry of catechist to women had been something of a flop. Nevertheless, if delegates wished to meet with him about Study Group 5, he would be happy to do so on Thursday, 24th October. In addition to an email address, other ways of sending material would be provided.

Alas, the seriousness of that offer was immediately undermined when it announced the same morning that the fourth encyclical of Pope Francis – Dilexit nos, on the Sacred Heart – would be released the same day. Thus on Thursday, the encyclical was released and a press conference will be held to present it. There will also be a press conference about the synodal assembly. To that full agenda will be added the meeting about Study Group 5, an afterthought tacked on to a day when attention will be focused elsewhere.

Thus on two major issues, Cardinal Fernández has (fatally?) undermined synodality, revealing that at the highest levels of the Church, on issues of significant importance, secret processes without any consultation are the preferred method of proceeding. Synodality is the window dressing while the real maneuvers take place behind closed doors.

Whether viewed from starboard or port, the HSS Synodality is sinking. How many are now ready to abandon ship?