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<div class="gmail-article-header"><h1 class="gmail-article-title">Archbishop Chaput publishes strong criticism of Youth Synod document</h1>
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<div class="gmail-article-author">by <strong><a href="http://catholicherald.co.uk/author/michael-davis/" title="Posts by Michael Davis" rel="author">Michael Davis</a></strong></div>
<div class="gmail-article-date">posted Friday, 21 Sep 2018</div><div class="gmail-article-date"><a href="http://catholicherald.co.uk/news/2018/09/21/archbishop-chaput-publishes-strong-criticism-of-youth-synod-document/">http://catholicherald.co.uk/news/2018/09/21/archbishop-chaput-publishes-strong-criticism-of-youth-synod-document/</a><br></div>
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<div class="gmail-article-featured"><img src="http://catholicherald.co.uk/content/uploads/2015/10/PA-23972329-800x500.jpg" class="gmail-featured-image gmail-wp-post-image" alt="" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="188" height="117"> <div class="gmail-featured-caption">
Archbishop Charles Chaput (AP) </div>
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<p class="gmail-article-standfirst">He published analysis by a 'respected North American theologian' raising concerns over the document</p>
<p>Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia has published<span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b> a wide-ranging criticism of the <em>Instrumentum Laboris</em> (a kind of introduction or preamble) for the upcoming Synod on the Young People, the Faith, and Vocational Discernment.</b></span></p>
<p>In an introductory paragraph, Chaput explains that the analysis was
“received from a respected North American theologian”. The article, <a href="https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2018/09/thoughts-on-the-instrumentum-laboris">which appears in <em>First Things</em></a>, warns that <span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b>the </b></span><em><span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b>Instrumentum</b></span> </em><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>veers dangerously close to heresy – specifically the heresies of naturalism, Lutheranism, and relativism.</b></span></p>
<p>It begins by criticizing its “<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>naturalist” understanding of modern
sexual dysfunction: widespread promiscuity, online pornography, and the
like. </b><b>“The document laments only its ‘disfiguring the beauty and depth
of affective and sex life’</b></span>,” he writes. “<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>No <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">mention</span> is made about the
disfigurement of <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">the soul,</span> its consequent spiritual blindness, and
impact on the r<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">eception of the Gospel</span> by one so wounded.”</b></span></p>
<p>He also claims<span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b> the document</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>exhibits an “inadequate grasp of </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>the
Church’s spiritual authority”</b></span>,<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b> <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">denying</span></b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b> her role as a teaching authority.
</b></span>According to the <em>Instrumentum</em>: “<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>The Church</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>will opt for
dialogue as her style and method</b></span>… No vocation, especially within the
Church, can be placed outside this ongoing dynamism of dialogue.”
According to the theologian<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>, this amounts to saying: “<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">The Church </span>does
not possess <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">the truth </span>but must take its place alongside other voices.</b></span></p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>Were <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">the Church</span> to abandon <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">her ministry of preaching</span>,</b></span> that is, were
the roles of the teaching Church and the listening Church to be
inverted,<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b> the <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">hierarchy</span> itself would be inverted, and the ministerial
priesthood would collapse into the baptismal priesthood. In short, we
would become Lutherans,” he continues.</b></span></p>
<p>Finally, he accuses the <em>Instrumentum </em>of<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b> taking a
“relativistic conception of<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"> vocation</span>”.</b></span> He quotes <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>the document’s
references to “personal holiness” and one’s “own truth”, adding bluntly:
“This is relativism”. </b></span>Moreover, he warns against<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b> the “false humility”
of prioritizing <span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)">“accompaniment”</span> over that of<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"> preaching</span>. </b></span>This, he says,
<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>“gives the impression that <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">absolute truth </span>is not found <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">in God</span>.”</b></span></p>
<p>Back in August, Chaput asked Pope Francis to <a href="http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2018/09/03/archbishop-chaput-asks-pope-to-postpone-youth-synod/">postpone the Synod</a>
itself. Right now, the bishops would have absolutely no credibility in
addressing this topic,” the archbishop said at an August 30 conference
at Philadelphia’s St Charles Borromeo Seminary, according to a report
published on the archdiocese website. In its place, Archbishop Chaput
suggested that the Pope “begin making plans for a synod on the life of
bishops”.</p></div></div></div>
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