To those in the conservative, semi-trad, and Trad Inc. camps who are holding their breath for the Synodal Church to convert to the Catholic faith, I have bad news.
A letter distributed on June 3 to participating members of the College of Cardinals revealed that the upcoming consistory will once again be an extended exercise in “consultation” and “collective discernment.” Questions of war, global instability, ecclesial governance, and social transformation will take center stage.
The sessions — scheduled for June 26 and 27 — will bring together the supposed Princes of the Church for an “environment intended for candid exchange.” According to the letter sent by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, who serves as the dean of the College, participants are expected to contribute perspectives rooted in the realities of their local churches while engaging one another with openness and intellectual freedom.
Cardinals have also been asked to come prepared to discuss the conflicts, humanitarian crises, political tensions, and social suffering shaping the lives of the communities they oversee, all while identifying places where reconciliation, hope, or evangelical witness can continue to emerge. It must be pointed out that these are not the primary concerns of the Catholic Church, or why it exists in the first place. Moreover, what the Synodal Church means by “reconciliation,” “hope,” and “evangelical witness” does not have anything to do with how the Church in past centuries used those terms.
A significant portion of the meeting will revolve around Magnifica Humanitas, the recently issued papal text that has become a central point of reference for Leo XIV’s broader man-centered vision. Among the most sensitive discussions will be those concerning war and peace, while revisiting the long-standing conversation surrounding armed conflict and whether traditional appeals to the concept of “just war” remain morally adequate in the modern world.
The Dispatch
Participants will also consider other subjects not central to Catholicism, such as how rapid cultural changes, shifting social structures, and evolving human aspirations challenge the “Church’s” understanding of development, happiness, and communal life. As always, the agenda in Rome these days seems to be how to further improve the temporal secular humanist project.
The consistory will take place in the Vatican and conclude on June 29 with celebrations ironically marking the feast of real Catholics, Saint Peter and Saint Paul. During that “liturgy,” Prevost is expected to bless and impose palliums upon metropolitan archbishops that he appointed over the previous year, reaffirming their communion with Synodal Rome.
Liturgical questions remain absent from the official program, just as they did during Leo’s first consistory. This is no coincidence. It is deliberate. The synodal church and its leaders are more interested in “social realities” and “global challenges” than preaching the faith. And yet, this is the same institution that will in all likelihood “excommunicate” the SSPX on July 1 just days after the consistory comes to a close?
Those who are still deceived into thinking this is the Catholic Church should pray for the grace to recognize that, after more than six decades of professing a false religion, Rome is not suddenly going to embrace the true faith — especially not under Leo XIV, who made clear on day one that he wants a “synodal church.”
This article was reprinted from the Radical Fidelity Substack. It has been updated since its original publication.
