(LifeSiteNews) — Swiss Bishop Marian Eleganti has said that the Vatican’s Synod on Synodality is determined by “ready-made agendas” and criticized Pope Francis for his hypocrisy.
In an interview with the Swiss news outlet kath.ch, he posited that “ready-made agendas will determine the synodal process and control it from the outset.”
He said that Pope Francis’ synodal process is not actually a “listening” process determined by the views of the laity, as the proponents of so-called “synodality” often claim.
READ: Vatican’s Synod account on X deletes poll after 88% reject ‘synodality’
“I believe that in such processes, the editors who formulate the final documents are the deciding factor – not necessarily the Holy Spirit,” Eleganti said. “You cannot involve 1.2 billion Catholics in such a process.”
“It is also immediately instrumentalized for church politics,” he added.
“Today, the so-called ‘lived reality’ is being used as another ‘source of revelation,’” the Swiss bishop said regarding the synod’s outlook.
Quoting Colombian philosopher Nicolás Gómez Dávila, Eleganti stated: “Having failed to get people to practice what it teaches, the contemporary Church has decided to teach what it practices.”
The prelate warned that the synod could lead to schism “if the frustration of having failed once again with one’s own agenda becomes great enough.”
He went on to criticize Francis’ hypocrisy of promoting “synodality” while acting in an authoritarian manner himself.
“Although Pope Francis has written Synodality on his banner, he has a very authoritarian leadership style,” Eleganti stated. ”He intervenes in the synodal process and steers it, for example by withdrawing important issues from the plenary assembly and delegating them to commissions that work autonomously.”
“He also put a vote that was rejected by a majority of the plenary assembly back on the agenda of the second Synod on the Family. The final document of the Amazon Synod disappointed Bishop Kräutler for similar reasons.”
READ: Bishop who wrote Amazon working doc wants overhauled priesthood, ordained women
“I do not deny Pope Francis the authority and authorization to do so,” Eleganti clarified. “He is the Pope and must act according to his conscience before God.”
However, “Some will wonder what exactly Synodality means to him.”
“Apparently, Synodality has limits. Many see a self-contradiction in the Pope’s actions,” he concluded.
RELATED
Catholic priest: ‘Synodality’ aims to destroy the Church by ‘restructuring’ it into an NGO
Swiss Bishop Eleganti: Vatican II contains ‘ambiguity,’ young Catholics love the Latin Mass
Bishop Eleganti rebukes German bishops’ call to reinterpret Vatican I on papal primacy