Going into the Synod on the family, there was widespread discussion about the Instrumentum Laboris. Professors David S. Crawford and Stephan Kampowski of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family proposed some criticisms of that text in an ‘appeal’ published in First Things.

Yet, discussion and constructive criticism were expected. As Cardinal Louis Antonio Tagle of Manila in the Philippines said at the fifth Synod briefing at the Holy See Press Office, “In fact it [i.e., the Instrumentum Laboris] is called a martyred document, it must be ready to be martyred, to be shot. Otherwise there is no point in calling 300 people (to Rome) just to say, ‘Yes, this is it.’”

An increased number of small group discussions at this month’s 14^th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops has afforded delegates plentiful opportunities to voice their concerns about the document. Recently, Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C. told America magazine’s Gerard O’Connell that “the process of [this] synod is to allow the smaller groups much more time because that’s where the real debate takes place.” He adds that “out of that comes the reflection on this report (‘relatio’ working document) by all of these bishops in the 13 small (language) groups.”

Despite earlier concerns about the synodal assembly’s new procedural methodology, which some claimed opened the Synod to manipulation, Cardinal Wuerl asserts that “I don’t see that as being manipulated in any way. I don’t see how you can manipulate all of those groups and all of the people leading them; all of the 13 moderators and the 13 rapporteurs (‘relators’) of the groups were elected. They were all elected. So I don’t see how they could be manipulated.”

(The cardinal spoke from the experience of seven synodal assemblies, serving one of them as a general rapporteur.)

As a matter of fact, the thirteen small group sessions of thirteen language sections has occasioned the emergence of a growing consensus about the Instrumentum Laboris. The relatio of Circulus Anglicus ‘D’ expressed that consensus nicely, stating that “we found much of the text to be flawed or inadequate, especially in its theology, clarity, trust in the power of grace, its use of Scripture and its tendency to see the world through overwhelmingly Western eyes.”

In the words of Cardinal Wuerl, “I don’t see any of that as manipulative. I see it as widening the participation of the bishops (compared to the past)” in the exercise of the Petrine ministry, something both Popes St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI desired.

Across the thirteen circuli minori and eighteen general congregations that fill out the calendario dei lavori, the Synod delegates have been working toward a development of the instrumentum laboris dated June 23, 2015, giving voice to an authentic “ecclesial expression.” As I explained in the National Catholic Register on October 8, that manner of procedure eschews categorization by a “hermeneutic of conspiracy,” which seeks only to reduce the collegiality of the Pope and the bishops to a matter of parlor politics and manipulation, seeking “a political compromise or a least common denominator.”

Nonetheless, some commentators continue to insist on reducing the synodal experience to a struggle between competing ideologies. In his America magazine interview, Cardinal Wuerl added that “They were the ones at the last synod that were giving interviews, and denouncing and claiming there were intrigues and manipulation. That, I think, falls on them. I don’t see it with a foundation in reality.” And, he speculates that “I wonder if some of these people who are speaking, sometimes surreptitiously, sometimes half-way implying, then backing off and then twisting around, I wonder if it is really that they find they just don’t like this pope.”

Certainly, such attitudes do not accord with the synodal structure itself. Blessed Pope Paul VI formally instituted the permanent Synod of Bishops on September 15, 1965 in his Apostolic Letter, issued motu proprio, entitled in Latin Apostolica Sollicitudo. In the introduction to that document, he indicated he wanted to establish the collegial structure as “a continuance after the Council of the great abundance of benefits that We have been so happy to see flow to the Christian people during the time of the Council as a result of Our close collaboration with the bishops.”

One such benefit is the affirmation of the unity of the faith against the forces of darkness that stir up ideological divisions within the body of Christ. Cardinal Wuerl, appointed a member of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on April 21, 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI, said “There are always people who are unhappy with something that is going on in the church, but the touchstone of authentic Catholicism is adherence to the teaching of the Pope. The rock is Peter, the touchstone is Peter and, as the Holy Father said, it’s the guarantee of unity.”

He is confident that touchstone continues to illuminate synod aula discussions, despite perceptions to the contrary outside the assembly. He told Gerard O’Connell that “I think that right now there has been so much tainting of how the synod is being seen. I don’t think the process has been tainted, I don’t think the synod itself has been tainted, but the lens through which it is being seen by many, many people has been tainted, and so I suspect that that will have some impact.” However, the cardinal doesn’t think such a perception has staying power, “It’s not going to be a long term impact because you can only paint something in false tones and have it remain understood incorrectly for so long, after a while the church wins out.” He states that “The great maxim—magna est veritas et semper prevalebit—the truth is great and it always wins out, even with all of this propaganda and all of this distortion.”