Papal Nun Sense

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TRANSCRIPT

Pope Francis is using his Synod on Synodality to drive a wedge between Holy Orders and Church leadership roles. This, according to a French nun, whom Francis made the first woman to have voting rights in the Synod of Bishops.

Church Militant's William Mahoney looks at her recent interview with one of America's most liberal newspapers.

Sister Nathalie Becquart was featured this week in the New York Times in an article titled "The Nun Reshaping the Role of Women Inside the Vatican."

Asked, "What kind of issues will you be voting on at the Synod [on Synodality]?" the habitless sister had no answer. She repeated the Vatican's talking point that the synodal process is about trying to figure out what kind of Church the Church wants to be.

Becquart concluded, "So far we are at the listening stage, the first time in the history of the Church that we have such a broad-based listening process."

Asked about the ordination of women, Becquart responded, "The vision of Pope Francis, through this synod, is to get rid of a clerical Church and move to a synodal Church — to disconnect participation in the leadership of the Church from ordination."

She continued to dance around the topic, neither affirming nor denying immutable Church teaching that ordaining women is impossible.

Wrapping up her reflections, Becquart surmised, "The question of women is a sign of the times. It is a powerful call within our societies and in the Church. The Church has already said we should fight against any discrimination against women. But it is a long way, not only in the Church."

Francis has been working to blur the lines between the roles of men and women in the Church. Last year, the pontiff opened the door for women to receive the ministries of lector and acolyte, themselves being modified remnants of the four minor orders Paul VI suppressed in 1972.

Then, about a month after he extended those ministries to women, Francis appointed Becquart an undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops.

The French nun is under Maltese cardinal Mario Grech, who heads the Synod of Bishops.

Grech is fine with divorced and civilly remarried Catholics receiving Holy Communion, in opposition to Church law. As bishop of Gozo, he even threatened his priests that upheld Church law on the issue.

As bishop of Gozo, Grech also appeared on Maltese TV, where he applauded the island nation's legalization of so-called same-sex marriage.

In this first phase of the Synod on Synodality, Francis, Grech, Becquart and the like continue to talk about what they might talk about when they later meet to talk.

But by saying nothing clear or substantial on authentic Catholic teaching, all under the pretense of listening to the Holy Spirit, they're speaking volumes on what the Synod on Synodality is really about.

The so-called synodal process is scheduled to conclude in 2023 with phase 4, The Universal Phase.

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