Vatican Heads-Up: Bishops to “Prepare Faithful for Reception of Post-Synodal Exhortation”

“Pontifical” Council for the Family gives advance warning…

Vatican Heads-Up: Bishops to “Prepare All the Faithful for Reception of the Post-Synodal Exhortation”

This much is clear: Publication of the long-awaited so-called “Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation” of “Pope” Francis on the Synod on the Family, which will address the question of whether publicly unrepentant adulterers, fornicators, and sodomites can be admitted to the Novus Ordo sacraments, is imminent. If recent rumors are true, then the document is in excess of 200 pages, was drafted mainly by “Archbishop” Manuel “Smoochie” Fernandez, and was already signed by Francis on March 19, the feast of St. Joseph. The Vatican’s spokesman “Fr.” Federico Lombardi has since confirmed that the document “will be released sometime after Easter week, in the first half of April” (source). The last document of this type — “Apostolic Exhortation” — was Evangelii Gaudium, released by Francis in 2013.

But now there is a new development: On March 29, 2016, the French Novus Ordo newspaper La Croix reported that during Holy Week, “Archbishop” Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Vatican’s so-called “Pontifical Council for the Family”, sent out an email to all Novus Ordo bishops in the world, asking them to take steps to prepare the faithful for the reception of the post-synodal exhortation. They are encouraged to do this by calling a press conference — preferably to be scheduled on the same day as the Vatican’s own press conference — in which the “papal” document is to be introduced by an “expert for pastoral ministry to families” (un expert de la pastorale familiale), such as “a theologian or a [married] couple”, who are “capable of talking about the subject in front of a large audience”. Here is a link to the original article in the French newspaper:

• “Rome prépare déjà la « Réception » de L’Exhortation Apostolique sur la Famille” (La Croix, March 29, 2016)

As far as the content of the forthcoming lengthy exhortation, the signals continue to be vague and ambiguous. According to La Croix, one Novus Ordo bishop revealed that Paglia’s email says the document is “in line with the two relatios drafted at the end of each of the two synods, but also [with] the catechesis of Pope Francis on the family, as well as the teaching of John Paul II and the Gospel”.

For those who may need a refresher concerning the two disaster synods and their relatios (final reports):

• A Nod to Sin at the Synod: First Document causes Chaos (2014)
• The Day After (2014)
• Oh, the Drama! The Synod is Over (2014)
• What’s Good for the Goose is Good for the Gander: 2014 Synod refutes Vatican II Ecclesiology
• Francis stacks the Deck for the Synod (2015)
• Showdown in Rome: Complete 2015 Synod Coverage
• The Synod’s Grand Finale: All Doors are Open (2015)

Meanwhile, the National Catholic Register has reported that Über-Modernist “Cardinal” Walter Kasper recently gave a preview of the document in a talk in Lucca, Italy, on March 14:

The cardinal, whose theology Pope Francis has often lauded, went on to say that in the document the Holy Father will “definitively express himself on family issues addressed during the last Synod, and in particular on the participation of the divorced and remarried faithful in the active life of the Catholic community.”

He added that the apostolic exhortation will represent “the first step in a reform” that will mark the “turning of a page” in the Church’s history “after 1,700 years.”

“We must not repeat past formulas and barricade ourselves behind the wall of exclusivism and clericalism,” Cardinal Kasper told a packed aula in Lucca’s Real Collegio, adding that the Church must live in the current times and “know how to interpret them.” He then spoke about giving more opportunities for women to serve in Church administration.

(Edward Pentin, “Cardinal Kasper Suggests Exhortation Could Be Published Saturday”, National Catholic Register, Mar. 16, 2016)

While it is hard to anticipate just what the unpredictable Francis will say, and what the fallout will be, we can say that, given the Vatican’s emphasis on needing to prepare the faithful for its reception, this is going to be huge. Whether this will precipitate the schism we have long believed will take place under Francis, remains to be seen.

In any case, fasten your seatbelts: Chaos Frank is about to kick things up a notch.

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