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September 23, 2022
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The "National Synthesis" On the Synod
Francis X. Maier
The Catholic Thing
When I did read the text of the National Synthesis the day after its release, I found that diocesan consultation efforts were impressive. Intentions were admirable. Portions of the final document have real merit. But overall, the text is crippled by tone and focus.

Having spent a year or two in therapy myself as a teen, the language has a familiar therapeutic ring. This starts early and continues throughout. The first section – “Enduring Wounds” – captures the theme of the entire document. It’s a warm bath in varieties of victimhood, marginalization, “pain and anxiety,” and vulnerability, with the unborn tucked in among LGBTQ+ and other concerns. Listening, healing, walking together, accompaniment: the vocabulary of the current pontificate understandably dominates throughout. But the effect is reminiscent of post-sweetener fatigue.

The authors take pride in the fact that the comments of some 700,000 Catholics from across the country fed into the National Synthesis. But the data collection was loose and unscientific, and the results reflect barely 1 percent of the official U.S. Catholic population. Worse, the document’s cavalcade of complaints and distress is not only alien to the lives of millions of faithful U.S. Catholics; it also embodies exactly the kind of prejudices against the American Church, her experience, and her culture that seem to pervade current Roman leadership. The report leaves the reader with the uneasy feeling that it tells the Vatican’s 2023 synod organizers what they already think and want to hear. Regrettably, that same kind of predetermined spirit marked both the 2015 and 2018 synods.
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The royal funeral reminds us that our fundamental duty toward God ([link removed]) may be reflected in public life, even without an established Church, writes Fellow Brad Littlejohn of Evangelicals in Civic Life ([link removed]) in WORLD Opinions.
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Postdoctoral Fellow Nathanael Blake's latest for The Federalist counters recent media hits ([link removed]) on New York's Yeshiva schools. "At the heart of the matter is the rights of minority communities to live peaceably out of step with the majority."
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The Church cannot rally under a commitment to evangelization ([link removed]) without answering critical questions. Distinguished Senior Fellow George Weigel, writing in The Catholic Difference, charts the way forward.
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"Rings and Rationalism: Tolkien’s Tales Against Domination ([link removed]) ," a chapter by Postdoctoral Fellow Nathanael Blake in Critics of Enlightenment Rationalism Revisited ([link removed]) , outlines J.R.R. Tolkien's lifelong response to scientism and rationalism.
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EPPC Fellow Noelle Mering joined Kresta in the Afternoon ([link removed]) to discuss woke-ism's rise, religious character, and effects on contemporary life with reference to her work, Awake Not Woke: ([link removed]) A Christian Response to the Cult of Progressive Ideology.

Her segment begins at 22:47.
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"What’s Wrong with Christian Nationalism?" with Paul D. Miller and Samuel Perry

On this episode of the Faith Angle podcast ( Podbean ([link removed]) | Apple Podcasts ([link removed]) | Spotify ([link removed]) ), Paul D. Miller of Georgetown University and Samuel L. Perry of the University of Oklahoma sit down for an insightful, timely conversation about Christian nationalism. Highlighting themes from Paul's newly-released book, The Religion of American Greatness: What's Wrong with Christian Nationalism, both guests offer a historically-rooted definition of Christian nationalism, analyze journalists' coverage of this rapidly-spreading ideology, and explore key differences between Christian nationalism and generative patriotism that bears faithful witness in the public square.
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