Offer Void in Wisconsin.

So...I'm reliably informed that everything is just okey-fine with the Synod. The clock's ticking down, and we got this.

Yeah, well...let's just say I've seen that recently.

As America's Confucius famously said: "It ain't over till it's over." And the guy who just collegially dumped a 45 day annulment procedure drafted in secret on his brother bishops is the one in charge of the clock. 

And the refs. 

And the playbook. 

And the rulebook. 

And the players.

Amy Welborn helps to spell it out for you here.

Let me digress to notice one of the big stinkbombs of the Synod--the decentralization thing.

Damian Thompson sorta gets it, but gets lost in the weeds a bit--as in, playing defense counsel for the Curia. They don't need a defense counsel--they are, after all, part of the problem, too.

However, the decentralization thing is fascinating in exactly the same way that above-ground nuclear weapons testing, Yoko Ono concerts, durian tasting and Showgirls mesmerize:

Each is so staggeringly bad that you wonder what people were thinking.

The Kasper proposal, too, is a staggeringly bad idea, but it has one merit (of sorts) from the Catholic perspective: it would have universal--catholic--applicability. One standard.

Whereas entrusting national episcopal conferences with "genuine doctrinal authority" is...

I certainly hope you get the idea.

Bluntly, letting national episcopal conference set doctrinal decisions re: the family (or anything else) activates the Schismotron and cranks it up to

I respect Tom McDonald's opinion and judgment, but I have to disagree with him here. If the Catholic Church were to follow through on the Edict of Decentralisation, Catholicism would be more than changed--it (pronoun chosen deliberately) would be laughable.

If something is sinful based upon whether you are east or west of the Oder-Neisse Line, the Church is done. It is no longer catholic--universal. But it would be really, really funny. Then again, I have a decidedly bleak sense of humor, so your mileage may vary. For example:

And, really why stop at the border? We all know there is no magic in a national gaggle/club of bishops. What does Cardinal Dolan know about the unique conditions of Catholicism in Michigan, and why should a majority vote of a bunch of non-Michiganders govern us? Or, really--what does our Archbishop truly understand about life on the ground in southern Macomb County? He's a Mount Clemens guy, and everyone knows things get weird north of the Clinton River. 

And so on, and so forth. 

At the end of the day, the Creed will be bit different near the end:

"I believe in One...well, no, not as such...

Holy...yeah, kinda-ish so long as you aren't pious and overly-devotional or unpastoral. Kinda...

Catholic...er, well, we don't believe the same stuff as those stuffy Africans, so, maybe universal in some spiritual-but-not-religious sense...

Apostolic...eh, maybe, I guess, if you squint and avoid solemn nonsense...

Church. Es. Yep, definitely plural. Except when we gather at the bi-annual conventio--I mean Synod thingy."


And there you go. Interesting times, eh?