COMMENTARY: The Synod on Synodality’s discussion as lived experience as a guide to the moral life overlooks the lived experience of those who are faithful to Catholic Church teaching.
Deborah Savage, October 7, 2024 at National Catholic Register
As the first reports from the Synod on Synodality begin to trickle in, one in particular should give us pause — and remind us of the pressing need to find new and better ways of communicating what the Church teaches about the truth and meaning of human sexuality. Because those we seek to reach don’t seem to be listening.
In a recent article in the Register, Senior Editor Jonathan Liedl reports on the work of the study group tasked with developing “a synodal way of discerning Catholic Church teaching” on controversial issues. This study group is proposing a “new paradigm” that would allow for the discernment of “doctrine, ethics and pastoral approaches” by consulting with the faithful and learning from their “lived experience.” Liedl provides a revealing quote from the study group’s status report to the synod:
“Ethically speaking, it is not a matter of applying pre-packaged objective truth to the different subjective situations, as if they were mere particular cases of an immutable and universal law. The criteria of discernment arise from listening to the [living] self-gift of Revelation in Jesus in the today of the Spirit.”
This statement alone is cause for concern. For the “immutable and universal law” referred to here can only be the natural law, that is, our participation in the Divine Law — that which anchors the Church’s teaching in the natural order. And it is not “applied.” It is discovered in the personal circumstances of life — quite often when one tries to ignore it.
About the Ruth Institute
The Ruth Institute is a global non-profit organization, leading an international interfaith coalition to defend the family and build a civilization of love.
Jennifer Roback Morse has a Ph.D. in economics and has taught at Yale and George Mason University. She is the author of The Sexual State and Love and Economics – It Takes a Family to Raise a Village.
To get more information or schedule an interview with Dr. Morse, contact media@ruthinstitute.org.
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