By the time Francis announced his intention to “create a different church” — which means a church different from the Church Jesus established — he had already given us so many indications of his desire to destroy the Catholic Church: from Amoris Laetitia and Traditionis Custodes, to the fact that he derides faithful Catholics while honoring Fr. James Martin, the globalists, and his Pachamama.

If a backwards Catholic wanted to tell a Methodist about why the Catholic Church is the Ark of Salvation, the poor Methodist would need to report the matter to the safeguarding team or a “specialised agency” (perhaps the Rome version of the FBI).

In case we missed the point, though, all of the Synod’s documents have manifested the unmistakable intent to create a new, unholy church: the Synodal Church. And, for those who understandably have no desire to read the scandalous Synodal documents, last year the Synod expressed its orientation through artwork promoting LGTBQ ideology and the ordination of women. When Diane Montagna asked Cardinal Mario Grech if he and the Synod’s leaders were listening to faithful Catholics who had been scandalized by the artwork, he replied that they were listening to everybody:

“We are listening to everybody and if you go through the document – we are not only talking about images but contents – listening to everybody without excluding anybody.”

This admission from one of the Synod’s leaders ought to have removed all doubt — the different church (which is the Synodal Church) would be a mockery of the Catholic Church.

And now, with the current phase of the Synod underway in Rome, Francis and his collaborators have done even more to make sure we understand that the Synodal Church is fundamentally opposed to the Catholic Church. Here, for instance, are the developments highlighted in the October 12, 2023 newsletter from the Synodal media team:

Ecumenical Prayer Meeting. The newsletter begins with a synopsis of the ecumenical prayer vigil on the weekend before the current session:

“Thousands of faithful united with Pope Francis and the leaders of major Christian denominations joined in an ecumenical prayer vigil on the eve of the General Assembly of the Synod, at St Peter’s Square, Rome, September 30.”

On its face, this may look like John Paul II’s infamous Prayer Meeting at Assisi, which opened the floodgate for these types of gatherings. All such meetings offend God and His Church, but the recent ecumenical prayer vigil for the Synod has added significance because those gathered in prayer represent the actual membership of the Synodal Church: the “People of God,” which consists of all baptized people. They are all praying together for the successful outcome of a Synodal process that will remove the barriers between Catholics and non-Catholic Christians.

They know the Synodal path leads to hell; they are simply uncertain about how far along the path they will be allowed to go.

If this sounds too outlandish to be true, we can see one confirmation (among many) in the safeguarding policy of the prayer vigil. With the current predators in the Vatican, one can appreciate the need for a policy to protect participants against sexual assault, but this policy also safeguarded participants against spiritual assault:

“The safeguarding team for Together/Gathering of the People of God will: Receive reports of sexual assault, violence of any kind and spiritual abuse during the meeting, regardless of who is accused.”

So, for example, if a backwards Catholic wanted to tell a Methodist about why the Catholic Church is the Ark of Salvation, the poor Methodist would need to report the matter to the safeguarding team or a “specialised agency” (perhaps the Rome version of the FBI):

"If I am affected by sexual harassment, spiritual abuse or violence or notice this happening around me, I will immediately inform the safeguarding team or a specialised agency.”

This sounds crazy (and it is), but it is also a deliberate mockery of the Catholic Church.

Pre-Synod Retreat. The newsletter next highlights the three-day retreat to open the Synodal session:

“Following an ecumenical prayer vigil, members, delegates and special invitees for the XVI General Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops went for a three-days retreat, September 30-October 3, at Fraterna Domus Retreat Centre, Sacrofano, Rome, where Fr. Timothy Radcliffe of the Dominican Order and Sr Maria Ignazia Angelini, a Benedictine nun, led them through various reflections. On his part, Fr Radcliffe insisted on faith, hope and unity as the attitude necessary for a fruitful synodal assembly and as well as friendship and being at home with God and with one another.”

In his 4th mediation of the retreat, the pro-LGBTQ+ Fr. Radcliffe suggested that we cannot know where the Synod will go:

“A real conversation cannot be controlled. One surrenders oneself to its direction. We cannot anticipate where it will take us, to Emmaus or Jerusalem. Where will this Synod lead the Church? If we knew in advance, there would be no point in having it! Let us be surprised!”

But this is pure nonsense — they know the Synodal path very well, for it is the same wide path Our Lord warned about in the Sermon on the Mount: “broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat” (Matthew 7:13).

They know the Synodal path leads to hell; they are simply uncertain about how far along the path they will be allowed to go.

Whereas the gathering of bishops in St. Peter’s at Vatican II gave at least the appearance of bishops seeking to be led by the Holy Ghost, this looks much more like a vulgar convention meant to demean not only the bishops but also the entire Catholic Church.

It is also worth noting that the newsletter’s image for this story about the retreat is an inverted pyramid, which is Francis’s image for the Synodal Church:

“Taking up the ecclesiological perspective of Vatican II, Pope Francis sketches the image of a synodal Church as ‘an inverted pyramid’ which comprises the People of God and the College of Bishops, one of whose members, the Successor of Peter, has a specific ministry of unity. Here the summit is below the base.” (International Theological Commission study on Synodality)

This deliberate inversion of God’s order is yet another indication that the Synodal path is from hell and leads to hell.

Round Tables. The newsletter also highlights the Synod’s unorthodox setting:

“In this assembly, the synod hall has a different layout from what used to be in the other synods before. The amphitheatre format used in other synod assemblies has been abandoned and the use of round tables has been adopted, where 12 people at each table sit side by side, face to face, eye to eye, comprising of bishops, priests, Religious men and women and lay men and women. They are brought together by the common languages in which they can communicate, so that they can dialogue and discern together.”

All of this takes place in the Paul VI audience hall, which fittingly resembles a snake head. Whereas the gathering of bishops in St. Peter’s at Vatican II gave at least the appearance of bishops seeking to be led by the Holy Ghost, this looks much more like a vulgar convention meant to demean not only the bishops but also the entire Catholic Church.

Francis Opening Speech. Naturally, the newsletter describes Francis’s welcoming address for the Synodal assembly:

“At the opening ceremony for the Synodal assembly at Paul VI Hall, October 4, 2023, Pope Francis welcomed the over 400 participants, experts and facilitators and reminded them that synod is an expression of the Church. According to the Holy Father, walking together is the Church’s nature and mission. Therefore, a synod is an opportunity for the Church to show to the world her relationship with the Holy Spirit, an opportunity to become a listening Church, a church of closeness and compassion. It also a moment that as people of God, without leaving anyone behind, we let our problems come out in dialogue without fear, trying to hide or to justify ourselves.”

This description provides several expressions of the distinctive characteristics of the Synodal Church: its nature and mission is “walking together”; it will become a listening Church; it does not leave anyone (other than Traditional Catholics) behind; and it is guided by dialogue. Perhaps unintentionally, it is revealing to read that the “synod is an opportunity for the Church to show the world her relationship with the Holy Spirit” — as we are seeing, the Synodal Church is revealing that this relationship consists primarily of mocking the Holy Ghost.

Thanks to the great wickedness of Francis and his collaborators, we see the work of Satan in the Synod.

Conversation in the Spirit. Finally, the newsletter mentions Cardinal Hollerich’s words about “spiritual conversation”:

“On October 9, the assembly transited into the second module which took place for three days and half. . . Explaining the groups of interest, the Relator of the Synod Cardinal Jean Claude Hollerich said that these groups will be according to the participants preferred language and topic of interest, but using the same methodology of Spiritual Conversation.”

What can this possibly mean? We can find more detail in the transcript of Cardinal Hollerich’s talk:

“This afternoon and tomorrow morning we will work in the Circuli Minores, according to the method of communal discernment inspired by conversation in the Spirit that we have already practised. We listen to each other, we listen to the Spirit, we will begin to draft the group’s report and prepare the speech that the rapporteur will read in the assembly, focusing on the points that your group wishes to submit to the assembly in order to go deeper in a common discernment.”

Hollerich described a process by which the participants will brainstorm ways to reimagine and reformulate settled teaching of the Church. This is yet another sign of the Synodal Church’s complete mockery of the Holy Ghost.

With these five topics of the Synodal newsletter, we can put together a complete picture:

• This is indeed a gathering in which the beliefs of all baptized people —rather than only Catholics — will be represented. By definition, this means that Catholic beliefs will be challenged.
• There is a definite skepticism about settled Catholic teaching, which means a refusal to simply accept what the Church has always taught.
• The ancient process of invoking the Holy Spirit to guide the successors of the Apostles to discern God’s will has been replaced by the humiliating spectacle of bishops participating on the same footing with laity, many of whom openly despise the teachings of the Church.
• Unlike the Catholic Church, which seeks to faithfully safeguard and transmit the unadulterated Catholic Faith entrusted to it by God, the Synodal Church seeks to discover its “truth” through a process of listening to the emotional pleas of those who do not want to follow what the Church teaches.
• The entire process has been designed to shatter the image of the Church as One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic, and replace it with an image of an amorphous gathering of people wanting to share their unholy beliefs about what God should want us to do.

All of this is so awful and blasphemous that some faithful Catholics have been tempted to despair. Others have tried to ignore, or at least downplay, the Synod. But it seems that we ought to recognize that God has permitted it to become increasingly obvious that the Synodal path is from hell and leads to hell. He is permitting it for a reason, so we risk thwarting His will if we ignore the signs He is giving us.

We can take great consolation in the fact that neither the gates of hell nor the Synodal Church will prevail against God’s Catholic Church. With that consolation, though, comes a real responsibility to do all we can remain as faithful as possible to the many graces God gives us.

In this regard, we can find consolation and guidance in Our Lord’s promise that the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church. Some Catholics tend to view those words as a litmus test by which to ascertain whether the Catholic Church is the true Church, but this unfortunate approach risks leading souls to despair at precisely the moment when the promise is most valuable: (a) when there is an assault on the Church from hell, and (b) the assault appears close to overcoming the Church. Indeed, we can even see that Jesus’s promise also serves as a warning that the Church will face assaults that lead some faithful Catholics to fear that the gates of hell have prevailed.

So what do we see now? Thanks to the great wickedness of Francis and his collaborators, we see the work of Satan in the Synod. There is, therefore, an alignment between the gates of hell and the Synod, which seeks to prevail against the true Catholic Church. Again, if we read Our Lord’s promise primarily as a way to measure whether He is actually protecting His Church, we might be tempted to despair, just as the Apostles despaired when they saw Jesus in His Passion. But if we understand the promise for what it is — an actual promise that the Church will not be overcome, even when all seems lost — then we have every reason for confidence.

We have another great gift from God when we consider that, in Our Lord’s promise, the gates of hell are trying to prevail against the actual Church established and protected by God. So when we see the Synod, which is simply a grotesque manifestation of the gates of hell, attacking the Catholic Church, we have a remarkable confirmation that the Catholic Church is the Church established and protected by Our Lord. Moreover, because the Synod is essentially the apotheosis of the “Spirit of Vatican II,” our cooperation with God’s grace to counteract the Synodal Church will ultimately help expose and overcome the errors flowing from the Council. 

We can take great consolation in the fact that neither the gates of hell nor the Synodal Church will prevail against God’s Catholic Church. With that consolation, though, comes a real responsibility to do all we can remain as faithful as possible to the many graces God gives us. To whom much is given, much is required (Luke 12:48) — and if, in the midst of this great apostasy, we have been given the great grace to have the same Faith as the saints, then we must do our best to become saints.  Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!

Latest from RTV — THE FRONTLINE: Living the Christocentric Family Life in a Christophobic World