Pope calls for "decentralization" of the church

In a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the institution of the Synod of Bishops, Pope Francis, on Oct. 17, called for a "healthy decentralization" of power in the Catholic Church, where the laity play a greater role and bishops' conferences assume more independence in deciding Church matters, while the papacy is rethought. The pope said it is "necessary and urgent to think about a conversion of the papacy."

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The papacy indeed stands in need of conversion, but not the kind proposed here. To decentralize the Church is precisely to destroy it at the heart. The Church was set up as a Divine Monarchy, not a democracy, whereby the King of Kings was to rule the people with an iron rod. We know how Satan himself was present at Vatican II to plant the seeds of revolution. The Synod of Bishops was instituted at the Council to dethrone Christ and His Vicar, so that common consensus and not the Law of God would now determine the direction of the Church. And whereas the Synod could be used for good, it appears that radical bishops now have the upper hand on the synod and are using the pope to advance their own "collegiality" and not God's rule of Law. Since when are the pope and bishops called to be "collegial?" The only time in history when the bishops were collegial was when they fled the cross. Common consensus is based on fear, unless that consensus is to serve God without respect to persons. Each bishop is answerable only to Christ, not to other bishops. Christ's design for His Church is that it be One, Holy, and Apostolic, but to decentralize it serves precisely to divide and scatter it, and to send it floundering without direction, since it no longer has a rock to anchor to. The nature and government of the Church is that it is ruled from the top by Christ through His Vicar, with this direction filtering down through the hierarchy without resistance, so that the entire Church is knit with one beautiful bond of language, liturgy, doctrine, and spirit. But with Francis' plan to decentralize the Church we will soon see the ultimate of what we've already seen since Vatican II, namely, each and every bishop, cardinal, and priest running in their own direction and making the Church a shambles. In an age of instability what is needed is rock-solid stability, not fear. It's called leadership. Consulting with the confused and misguided of our time on how to run the Church is neither responsible nor pastoral, but sticking to the rule of tradition most certainly is. Yes, it is the most pastoral thing that can be done! In the words of St. Pius X: "The true friends of the people are neither revolutionaries nor innovators, but men of tradition." David Martin

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