Not that any German Cardinal can be trusted to tell the truth, but for your consideration.

This comes from Cardinal Reinhard Marx, chairman of the German Episcopal Conference. (For the uninitiated, the German Episcopal Conference is to the faith what Obama is to humility, unacquainted.)

Anyway, here is what Cardinal Marx had to say about what the heretics achieved at the Synod and what we can expect in the near future from this pontificate. (NC Reporter –no link)

“Anyone who comes to that conclusion has not had their eye on what has been going on in our church over the past one and a half years,” Marx said. “Up to now, these two issues have been absolutely non-negotiable. Although they had failed to get the two-thirds majority, the majority of the synod fathers had nevertheless voted in their favor.

“They are still part of the text,” Marx continued. “I especially asked the pope about that, and the pope said he wanted all the points published together with all the voting results. He wanted everyone in the church to see where we stood. No, this pope has pushed the doors open and the voting results at the end of the synod will not change that.”

Turning non-negotiables into negotiables since 2013!! Negotiable, at least in the eyes of the world. That is what the interim relatio achieved.

So what now?

“The doors are open — wider than they have ever been since the Second Vatican Council. The synod debates were just a starting point. Francis wants to get things moving, to push processes forward. The real work is about to begin,” Cardinal Reinhard Marx told the German weekly Die Zeit.

Some people seem to think that the progressives were defeated at the Synod and will now go scurrying away with their tail between their legs.  Not even close.  They achieved what they wanted.  The non-negotiables are considered negotiable by the public at large and by many within the Synod hall.  They have their tactical victory.  Now they are gearing up for a decisive win.  As Cardinal Marx says, “The synod debates were just a starting point. Francis wants to get things moving, to push processes forward. The real work is about to begin.”  Indeed.

Of course, all of this is very self-serving on the part of Cardinal Marx et al.  But we would be fools not to take the progressives at their word.  They are telling us what they intend to do, their hubris does not permit them to behave differently.  We must believe they will try.

*subhead*That was just round 1.*subhead*