In one word — given the very first question proposed to the “participants” — “Yes.”

And not, “Yes, sadly so” — for the aptly abbreviated SOS appears to be, in its first days, little more than a badly dated “Encounter Group” from the Woodstock generation (Jorge’s generation) that conceived it. It has begun with what appears to be, for all practical purposes, an ecclesiastical “Sensitivity Training” session setting out the parameters for all subsequent sessions.

They will not be concerned with critical and substantive issues affecting the lives of Catholics in an increasingly hostile world, nor will they address the state-sponsored suppression of the religious liberty of Catholics world-wide, still less the deep state’s infringement on the free expression of Catholics in the public forum — employing all its prosecutorial assets to subdue the expression of genuine Catholicism —  nor the apparent immunity granted to militantly secular groups that denigrate, diminish, and destroy what is uniquely Catholic. Neither will it attempt to redress the persecution of traditional Catholics by the regime of the “progressive” deep-Church of left-liberal bishops and cardinals — a fact which the Vatican resolutely refuses to recognize, even while it instigates it. This burlesque called the Synod on Synodality is merely an organ of the disaffected ecclesiastical apparatus that unquestionably initiated it to promote its own liberal agenda.

Let us consider only the first question (we will be exploring the others as well) submitted to the “participants”:

We presume that this is not a gratuitously salacious question. Why, we must ask, would our emotions and feelings, our … arousals … be of any significance to the state and mission of the Church in the world today… and all its members?
 

My desires and emotions, my feelings and my arousals?  ... instead of the salvation of my immortal soul? The inappropriately intimate language used is almost startling. In fact, the question could be lifted right out of an erotic novel:

“let’s talk about our desires, explore our feelings, delve into our emotions … and see if they arouse us.” 

 Indeed, the word “arousal” in used twice in two succeeding sentences!

Just as the author of Heal me with your Mouth, the Art of Kissing, by Cardinal Victor Fernández is understood to be, in large part, “credited” with the infamous and scandalous Exhortation Laudato Si, The Joy of Love — a title unquestionably borrowed from the widely known and erotic 1962 illustrated manual The Joy of Sex, by Alex Comfort — it is not difficult to see the same mind at work in these opening questions.

It would be absurd to suppose that there is no collaboration whatever between Francis and his close friend and advisor, whom he recently appointed to a post far beyond his native capacity. The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has always been a post requiring the deepest intellectual credentials as well as the most profound Catholic faith, neither of which is exemplified in Fernández. He is decidedly pedestrian in his résumé and certainly not sterling in his faith. But … he is “tight” with Jorge, his fellow-countryman. and has always counted on him in an imbroglio when his own resources have been depleted.  This alone says much about both Bergoglio and Fernández and the common vision they share.

Unfortunately, it says even more about this “Synod” that they have conceived and collaborated in. And it does not bode well for the Church.