On popping the corks at halftime.

So, we're now officially halfway done with the Synod on the Family.

That bears repeating: we're halfway done. It is not over.

And yet, from all the facile (and often juvenile) celebrations, everyone seems to be acting like it is. This is...unwise. Was the report itself fine? Probably, but we'll have to see the official translation later this week. 

But that's not the point. The document isn't the cincher. 

The issue is this: Do you think those who produced the destructive mid-meeting report are just going to roll over and go away? Do you think the German bishops, led by Walter "No Africans Need Apply" Kasper, and those in sympathy with them, are going to stop promoting their proposal?

Unless you're an idiot, the answer to the above is a resounding "no."

And please note that the Synod report is being sent out with the rejected paragraphs still in it, for "discussion purposes." Welcome to deliberately-muddied waters.

Also consider that some of the "no" votes may have been because the Synod wasn't liberal enough.

Finally, the Pope says he did not see any proposals that attacked the indissolubility of marriage offered at the Synod:

Instead, I have seen and I have heard – with joy and appreciation – speeches and interventions full of faith, of pastoral and doctrinal zeal, of wisdom, of frankness and of courage: and of parrhesia. And I have felt that what was set before our eyes was the good of the Church, of families, and the “supreme law,” the “good of souls” (cf. Can. 1752). And this always – we have said it here, in the Hall – without ever putting into question the fundamental truths of the Sacrament of marriage: the indissolubility, the unity, the faithfulness, the fruitfulness, that openness to life.

If the Kasper proposal is not an assault on marriage (along with being a bonus attack on Penance and the Eucharist), then nothing is. And yet the Pope clearly believes otherwise. With that in mind, the partisans of divorce have every reason to continue their efforts. And they will, directing their messages to the local churches, which means the task of response falls even more to the laity.

The ending of the Synod was a check to heterodoxy, not checkmate. Brace yourself for a long and contentious year. Pray without ceasing and present the truth without compromise. Be the sensus fidei. And brace for the attacks. They are coming.