Drawing on their experience of the Church of England’s synodal process, high-profile Anglican converts to Catholicism are warning of the perils of Pope Francis’ Synod on Synodality.
Two former Anglican bishops, Dr. Michael Nazir-Ali and Dr. Gavin Ashenden, who recently came home to Rome, are cautioning against the synod being hijacked by “pressure groups” and the listening process “mistaking the spirit of the age for the Holy Spirit.”
Supported by several ex-Anglican clergy who are now priests in the Catholic Ordinariate, the orthodox converts have been savagely attacked by revisionist Catholics for “fueling fear” because of an “anti-synodal mindset” tainted by an association with Anglicanism.
On November 9 , Ashenden, former chaplain to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, noted that “ex-Anglicans believe they can offer some help” because they have witnessed the “ploy” of synodality used in the Church of England “to such divisive and destructive effect.”
“The fact is that the ex-Anglicans have seen this trick played on the Church before. It is part of the spirituality of the progressives. Very simply put, they wrap up quasi-Marxist content in a spiritual comfort blanket and then talk a lot about the Holy Spirit,” Ashenden warned.
The outcome of the synodal process within Anglicanism was “division, demoralization, spiritual impoverishment, theological incoherence, diminishment of faith, apostasy and a fatal impairment of the church,” the host of the Merely Catholic podcast explained.