Synod: Reform, renewal, or revolution?

Why the synod's rhetoric sows mistrust.

At a Vatican press conference last week, Jesuit journalist Fr. Tom Reese asked Texas’ Bishop Daniel Flores a rather direct question. 

Reese noted that a lot of American Catholics are skeptical of the synod, and that some people believe “the bishops are being manipulated by a liberal cabal of staff and theologians.”

Vatican communications prefect Paolo Ruffini, Bishop Daniel Flores, and Cardinal Michael Czerny at a Vatican press conference. Credit: JD Flynn/ Pillar Media.

Flores was asked effectively to respond …