Observations on the Catholic Synod.

For those who are interested, my silence in the blogosphere has been due to other unforseen commitments which I have had to take on, principally, building and designing various elements of a house. I'm still keeping an eye on things and hope (for about the umpteenth time) to be blogging regularly in the next month or so.

However, I thought I would make a brief comment on the recent Catholic Church Synod.

Nial Ferguson, in explaining the rise of the west, explained its success in due to its ability to create "killer apps" which allowed it to overtake other civilisations. I think Ferguson presents a strong and compelling case (though some of his analysis is a bit simplistic) that certain cultural memes enable the flourishing of a civilisation. Ferguson does not go very much into the "software" by which these apps are written but in my mind, it is religious and philosophical culture which are the origin of the code.

Taking a Fergusonian view on the matter then, the recent Synod really needs to be thought of as a Western Civilisation software conference, and one of the foundational bits of Western Civilisational software is the Institution of Sacramental Marriage.  While a lot of Neoreactionaries seem to be concerned with politics as a driver of social change the real money is to found in the religous and philosophical underpinnings of society.  Religion more so than philosophy, because good religion seems to provide some protective effect against bad philosophy.

Tinkering with marriage comes with great peril though I feel we should be alright. I think a lot of strange things are going to happen to the Catholic Church in the next few years and all the gay talk (and I don't mean happy) has unsettled the true guardians of the faith Traditionalists. The problem with Tradition is that it is hermetically sealed, all that has been said about the Faith has been said and there is no new development that can occur out of it. Doubling down is the Traditionalist solution to every problem. I'm sorry people think this is a caricature but I'm calling it as I see it. The Traditionalists have stopped the development of any new "killer apps."

As I see it, the question that Francis is posing to the Synod is this, "How can we develop new applications using pre-existing software and code?" The issue remains inderminate.

Many see the very fact that Francis is asking this question as proof that he has gone "Lefty". But I don't think this is the case. In a speech, which was not widely reported by the media, Francis pretty much lays the boot into "alternative arrangements":

In an audience with members of an international Marian movement, Pope Francis warned that the sacrament of marriage has been reduced to a mere association, and urged participants to be witnesses in a secular world.

“The family is being hit, the family is being struck and the family is being bastardized[Ed],” the Pope told those in attendance at the Oct. 25 audience.

He warned against the common view in society that “you can call everything family, right?”

“What is being proposed is not marriage, it's an association. But it's not marriage! It's necessary to say these things very clearly and we have to say it!” Pope Francis stressed.

This ain't no New Age Pope.  No wonder the media turned a blind eye. The Cathedral does not want you to know.