Synod Marketing: Perception is Everything

I'm a little taken aback by people I admire acting like the Relatio's problems are no big deal because the document has no authority and changes nothing in Church doctrine. Well, orthodox Catholics know that, but, do most people reading the press reports? What does the average person picking up the Washington Post or the Boston Globe or reading the Huffington Post think is happening in Rome? They certainly are NOT interpreting the results the same way orthodox Catholic are. Even as I write this the D.C. FM station is reporting that the Catholic Church is "undergoing a transformation."

What exactly is going on?
Look at how the Synod has been manipulated. First of all the secrecy and lack of transparency with lots of leaks. Supposedly the secrecy would allow the bishops speak openly. I don't believe it. I think it was to PREVENT people from seeing the battle going on in the Synod chambers. It allows the charade of pretending that most of the Synod Fathers support the conclusions of the Ratio.

Consider how the Relatio was released to the press before the bishops had it. How and why did that happen? Was it an accident or a deliberate strategy. In view of the contents, I vote for deliberate strategy of Kasper and Co.

Cardinal Kasper from before the opening of the Synod has been spinning and spinning like a whirling dervish putting out his agenda on changing the rigid rules that all those old, cranky pharisees in the magisterium cling to like Neanderthals because they are so lacking in love, compassion, and mercy.

It has all the earmarks of a marketing strategy and I suspect if I re-read Rules for Radicals I could find a link to Alinsky's methods. But I'll take an advertising metaphor this time. When you want to market anything (including ideas) you need to remember that perception is power and often can trump the truth -- at least temporarily. "Marketing is essentially the manipulation of perception.....You buy what you perceive as best, and your perceptions are formed by what you see and hear. Much of that comes from marketing efforts."

The Synod is being cleverly marketed to make people believe that the Church is going to change its doctrine on homosexual unions, Communion for divorced and remarried couples, Church attitude to cohabitation, etc. Reports out of Rome are that the liberals who want all these changes are ecstatic. No surprise when you look at the reports in the liberal press. Their marketing strategy is working well. A Washington Post headline sums it all up, Conscience vs. authority at Pope Francis’ Synod on the Family. We've been there before, haven't we? How many Catholics have already nixed the authority of Christ's Church to follow their badly formed consciences on contraception? It's deja vu all over again with a broader agenda of dissent. Pray and do penance. The Church will survive, but how many believers will be left in her remnant.

"When I return will I find any faith on the earth?"