VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis has called for a “Church open to everyone” which is marked by a “synodal style,” claiming that “this is what God expects” of the Church today.
The Pontiff made his comments as part of the “Pope Video” project, which released a new video and prayer intention every month.
October’s intention is for a “Church open to everyone,” and focuses on the Synod on Synodality – linked in part to the key document which will guide the next stage of the synod being released later this month. It is also now 12 months since the multi-year event was launched in October 2021.
The “synodal” style has been described by Newark’s Cardinal Joseph Tobin as Francis’ “long-game” plan to effect change in the Church. Indeed, Francis has previously stated that “the Church is either synodal or it is not Church.”
Liturgical scholar and Thomist Dr. Peter Kwasniewski previously warned LifeSiteNews about the dangers in the modern understanding of synodality, declaring that “we see a continual submersion in bureaucracy, a surrender to the modern mentality of administration as the cure for all evils, which keeps the Church busy gazing at its navel while real evangelization withers and the pews empty out.”
Synod is about ‘opening doors to those outside the Church’
Opening with light guitar music and cartoon style graphics scattered across the screen, the video opens with Francis asking “What does it mean ‘to synod’?”
“It means walking together: syn-od. This is what it means in Greek: ‘to walk together’ and to walk on the same road,” he stated.
Speaking from his customary chair, Francis declared that a synodal Church is the will of God: “And this is what God expects of the Church of the third millennium – that it regain its awareness of being a people on the road and of having to travel together.”
Highlighting key words of “listening” and “hearing,” Francis stated that this process involved “opening doors to those outside the Church.”
Nor is a synod a “survey,” he said, but a process of “listening to the protagonist, the Holy Spirit. It’s about praying.”
“Let us pray that the Church, ever faithful to the Gospel and courageous in preaching it, may live in an increasing atmosphere of synodality and be a community of solidarity, fraternity, and welcome,” he closed.
Since the commencement of the Synod on Synodality last autumn, high-ranking prelates have struggled to explain exactly what the process is, including Cardinal Mario Grech who, as general secretary of the Synod of Bishops, is one of the events’ chief organizers. While Francis described the process as a “listening” to the Holy Spirit, the synodal reports from dioceses across the world have been inundated with numerous elements which contradict Catholic teaching, such as the promotion of LGBT ideology, support for Holy Communion for the divorced and “re-married,” along with female priests and married priests.
READ: UK vicar general calls for female priests, ending celibacy requirement to ease clergy shortages
***MAJOR UPDATE, November 10, 2022*** LifeSiteNews reported the bombshell statement issued by Archbishop Viganò, declaring that members of the “Bergoglian church” are no longer in union with the Church of Christ.
According to Archbishop Viganò:
the visible church, to which the world gives the name of Catholic Church and of which it considers Bergoglio as Pope, is no longer Church...
This statement was long overdue, and Archbishop Viganò is finally sounding the alarm — Pope Francis is leading the Church into something radically different than the Church established by Christ. Pope Francis cannot continue betraying the faithful by abdicating his duty as Universal Shepherd.
The time to redouble our efforts and fervently request that Pope Francis repent and be reconciled with the Church is NOW.
SIGN and SHARE. Defend the Church and demand that Pope Francis faithfully uphold the authentic Catholic faith!
Bishops from across the world have raised concern over Pope Francis' unfaithfulness to the 2,000+ years of Catholic teaching, and the recent statement by Archbishop Viganò is truly the breaking point into a new era for faithful Catholics.
READ THE FULL STATEMENT FROM LIFESITENEWS AND SIGN THIS PETITION TO DEFEND THE CHURCH NOW.
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Bishop Joseph Strickland, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Fr. James Altman, and two dozen more faithful Catholic priests & scholars are publicly calling out Pope Francis for his outrageous, dangerous, and heretical teaching concerning reception of Holy Communion.
Pope Francis stated that "faith" is the only requirement for those who wish to receive Holy Communion in his June 29 Apostolic Letter on the liturgy, Desiderio desideravi.
This statement is dangerous because:
- The Council of Trent explicitly anathematized those who make this claim calling it 'heresy'
- Pope Francis omitted the essential step of repentance for sin to worthily receive the Eucharist.
- Pope Francis is thereby allowing the faithful to eat and drink condemnation on themselves, should they receive Holy Communion unworthily
- Pope Francis is supporting moral relativism, eradicating the clear distinction between good and evil
- Pope Francis is eradicating the need for the Sacrament of Confession
- Pope Francis is damaging the teaching office of the Church by sowing doubt and division among faithful Catholics
But there is a way to stop Pope Francis' modernist attack and defend the true Catholic teaching on Holy Communion.
Catholics everywhere must renounce Pope Francis' heresy and uphold the truth: only Baptized Catholics in the state of grace, and therefore free of mortal sin, can receive Holy Communion*.
For those in mortal sin, repentance and absolution must first be sought in the Sacrament of Confession before receiving the Eucharist*.
Pope Francis' statement would mislead many souls, which is why we need your help today to stand with Bishop Strickland, Fr. Altman, Bishop Schneider, and more.
TELL POPE FRANCIS: HOLY COMMUNION CAN ONLY BE RECEIVED IN THE STATE OF GRACE!
The growing list of faithful Catholics who are standing for the truth and bravely resisting Pope Francis' attempt to dilute the Church's moral authority is only growing. This is great news, but the news can't simply stop with you.
You must join the growing list of supporters to but a STOP to Pope Francis' heresy.
WATCH: LifeSiteNews' co-CEO and Editor-in-Chief, John-Henry Westen, fully breaks down the growing list of faithful Catholics choosing to resist Pope Francis' attack on the faith.
Stand with these faithful Catholics: Bishop Joseph E. Strickland, Bishop André Gracida, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Bishop Robert Mutsaerts, Father Gerald E. Murray, Father James Altman, Father John Lovell, Professor Claudio Pierantoni, Dr. John Lamont, Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, Professor Anna Silvas, Dr. Anthony Esolen, Professor John Rist, Professor Paolo Pasqualucci, Julia Meloni, George Neumayr, and LifeSite’s John-Henry Westen.
*However, if a Catholic is unable to attend Confession but has a grave reason for receiving the Eucharist (such as a priest who may be required to celebrate Mass at a given time but who is unable to go to Confession), such a person must be confident to the best of his ability that he have perfect contrition for any mortal sins that he may have committed before receiving Holy Communion in an exceptional situation.
MORE INFORMATION:
Full statement by Catholic bishops and scholars correcting Pope Francis' heresy - LifeSiteNews
Such concepts are not surprising, however, given that in the preparatory documents, Pope Francis called for an “act of discerning” which entails listening to “people who have left the practice of the faith, people of other faith traditions, people of no religious belief, etc.”
But Grech praised the various reports, saying that the response “shows clearly how the Spirit is at work! Today, many of the faithful ask themselves how to continue the journey they have begun.”
Father Frédéric Fornos, S.J., International Director of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network which works in conjunction with the Pope Video project, echoed Grech’s words.
“It shouldn’t surprise us that in this month, in which we celebrate one year since the beginning of the synodal journey and in which Francis invites us to pray for a Church that is open to everyone, he is helping us understand what it means to discern,” he said.
“For the ongoing synodal journey to be a true spiritual process, it requires listening, dialogue, prayer, and discernment. There is no discernment without prayer.”
Yet while Vatican and Curial officials persistently promote “synodality” and “listening,” the former prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura Cardinal Raymond Burke has warned against the process. During an interview with LifeSiteNews in 2018, after the closing of the “Youth Synod,” he remarked that “synodality” has “become like a slogan, meant to suggest some kind of new church which is democratic and in which the authority of the Roman Pontiff is relativized and diminished — if not destroyed.”
Burke continued, raising concern that some people, “not understanding the notion of a synod correctly[,] could think, for instance, that the Catholic Church has now become some kind of democratic body with some kind of new constitution.”
Bishop Athanasius Schneider has also raised concerns about the concept of synodality, saying in a 2018 interview that the term is being used by some to “promote their own agenda” within the Church with the intention to “transform the life of the Church into a worldly and Protestant parliament style with continuous discussions and voting processes on matters that cannot be put to a vote.”