A major Vatican gathering, the Synod on Synodality, begins its final session today and is expected to make several breaks with traditional Catholic teaching that are expected to spark serious controversy.
Officially called the Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, this is the second of a two-part conferencing drawing 368 voting delegates — and dozens of other participants drawing from six continents.
Pope Francis launched the synod as a way to get greater participation in the Church and deal with several issues.
According to a Vatican document, the Synod will include admissions of "a number of sins."
The document states: "The aim is not to denounce the sin of others, but to acknowledge oneself as a member of those who, by omission or action, become the cause of suffering and responsible for the evil inflicted on the innocent and defenseless."
The second Synod will include testimony from a victim of clergy sexual abuse.
But critics say the synod's real agenda is to push radical and left-wing changes to the Church's teachings and traditions.
Father Gerald Murray, canon lawyer in the Archdiocese of New York, wrote in the Wall Street Journal that the Synod of Bishops "is a shell of its former self" due to the changes Pope Francis made to the upcoming assembly.
The Synod of Bishops was established in 1965 as an advisory group to the pope that consisted solely of bishops until Pope Francis allowed priests, members of religious orders, and lay people to join with full voting rights.
Pre-empting the synod, Pope Francis made two surprise announcements.
In December 2023, the pope approved the publications of a document that authorizes priests to bless same-sex couples, which Murray notes "effectively removed the topic from the synod's consideration."
About two months later, Pope Francis announced another surprise decision: to allow 10 expert study groups, selected by the synod's general secretariat, to present reports on the major topics being considered by the assembly.
These study groups are said to be discussing Church teachings on women's ordination to the diaconate, married clergy, and how to minister to the LGBT community.
Murray writes that these groups "include some public dissenters from Catholic doctrine" and that "prominent defenders of church orthodoxy are notably absent."
Murray also criticizes the decision to hand these same experts control over the document expressing the synod's final word, which he says makes the assembly "an audience of spectators."
"The voices and votes of the assembled bishops, priests, religious and laity have been replaced," Murray wrote.
He concludes that the synod "has become a captive audience serving as a sounding board for hand-picked experts who, for the most part, can be expected to reflect the priorities of Pope Francis and his collaborators, who chose them."