Question 185 – How should we interpret the Pope’s actions of removing Bishops from the Synod and replacing them with lay people with voting rights?

Transcript:

Bishop Athanasius Schneider:

He [the Pope] did not remove Bishops, he still let Bishops participate, but he made a fundamental change and break in all of Church history by giving lay people who do not belong to the Magisterium of the Church, basically the same rights to vote and together with the bishops, to vote with the bishops. Symbolically, in this way, the Magisterium is equally placed on the same level with the lay people. 

This is not Catholic, this is a protestant method and protestant belief that there is no teaching Church, that all are equal as Luther and the protestants say, denying the essential difference between the hierarchy - the teaching office and the lay people; the shepherds and the flock. 

This method which Pope Francis has approved, by giving rights to lay people together with the bishops to vote undermines the hierarchical structure of the Church. 

Christopher Wendt:

Yeah. Thank you, Your Excellency, that is very true. I mean, when you put it in the light of the idea of a magisterium, it’s just absurd to think that lay people are gonna be part of the Magisterium.

Bishop Schneider: 

I have to clarify: he did not give the lay people officially the right to teach like the Magisterium, he only gave them the right to vote in the Synod, to vote together with the Bishops. Therefore, I said, it is undermining the hierarchical structure of the Church. And even though the Synod of Bishops is not a formal act of the Magisterium, it only has the character of advice to the Pope, which we have to keep in mind. 

The Synod of Bishops is not an act of the Magisterium but a meeting with the bishops that advises the Pope in a collegial spirit. Some advise the Pope for the benefit of the Church. In this process, in this meeting, in this Synod, up until now, only Bishops voted and gave their advice and propositions but now, lay people are now together with the Bishops.

Even so, it remains formally not an act of the Magisterium but nevertheless, it creates great confusion, undermining the difference between the hierarchy and the lay faithful.