This is what I said months ago about the closing document and the aftermath of the synod. Compare it to the stories of these past days and the now expected post-synodal exhortation. I stand by what I said then as a very likely scenario.
But what happens then? Like Vatican II was not the end-game but only the opening, what follows the synod if the unthinkable happens? Again, I don’t know what will happen. But see the future, sometimes we must look to the past and see what they want to do, what they say they want to do, and how they have done it before. I want you to remember that we hardly ever hear of the divorced and remarried being denied communion. So like gay marriage, the ultimate goal is not the sacrilege itself, but something else. What that will look like is anybody’s guess, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised at the following scenario or others similar to it.
The post synod apostolic letter or statements from the Pope might make a basic statement about the indissolubility of marriage with no specific mention of the divorced and remarried receiving communion, knowing that anything other than this is impossible now. But the documents might also contain the now boilerplate calls for pastoral consideration. In conclusion, either the synod itself or perhaps the Pope himself in a following document may make a request for local Bishops’ conferences to explore ways for the divorced and remarried to be better integrated into parish life.
With those vague statements giving plausible deniability to the hierarchy, several Bishops’ conferences starting with Germany will issue norms allowing the divorced and remarried to receive communion after confession or some such other nonsense, which they are already likely allowing.
And the Church will do nothing. And then the practice will spread like wildfire. Think Communion in the hand. With the barn door left open, the horses are gone.
After the practice has spread globally, the Vatican will issue some weak statements about avoiding potential abuses, but essentially allowing the practice. That is when the real misery begins.
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