Chaos at the Vatican

[Torie]

"Chaos" is not a term really lived up to by the content of the article, but it is a rather interesting airing of the Vatican's laundry. I leave it to the reader to assess how dirty it is. Anyway, the political system in the US is not the only one that seems rather dysfunctional and Byzantine.

[TJ in Oregon]

Yes, it has been a rather ugly three weeks for the Church. Pope Francis wanted the synod to be conducted in the spirit of openness and dialogue, and, well, the bishops were certainly willing to express their views. I have no idea what exactly he was trying to get done but the synod's recommendations made in the final report don't really address much in the way of controversial things. The paragraphs about divorced and civilly remarried Catholics (which was by far and away the issue that caused the most fireworks) are sufficiently vague as to have essentially no "legal" meaning. Now the ball is in Pope Francis's court to decide (or more likely not) if any pastoral changes need to be made.

FWIW the Charasma story seemed to get a lot more press in the secular media than in Catholic sources, even liberal Catholic sources. It seemed like a blip on the synod radar.

Fortunately, as the end of the article stated the chances of the synod inflicting real damage on the Church are slim and judging by the final report and real damage was avoided.