The Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965, perhaps the most controversial event in

the history of Catholicism, in the history of Christianity.

Yeah, you could argue Martin Luther, Reformation, Sism between Constantinople and Rome, but

then you look at the demographics. You look at the numbers, you look at the confusion,

you look at the drop-off on mass attendance, infant baptisms, adult conversions, vocations

to the priesthood, vocations to the religious life, male and female, monks, brothers,

and sisters. It's a downward spiral. And ever since Vatican II, since 1965, there have

been synods. There's actually been 16 synods. We'll talk a little bit about that today.

The newest one is get it, the synod on synodality. And for a couple years now, I've been suggesting

that this synodal process that's been happening since Vatican II is essentially a ghost council.

It is essentially the third Vatican council. The Pope calls them, bishops come, they attend,

and at the end of each one, usually I think actually every time. We'll look at it a little

bit. The Pope issues a document, usually an apostolic exhortation. Functionally,

pragmatically, it is like an ecumenical council, and it reboots every year or two.

So just yesterday, actually, maybe there's a couple of days before that, Pope Francis announced

that the synod of synodality, which is not been popular, by the way, will be extended yet another

year. What is the synod of synodality? The synod of synodality is bishops hosting people who are

Catholic, but not even Catholic. They're inviting Lutherans and Methodists and even Jews and Muslims

and unbelievers, atheists to come and say, what can we do better? How can we shape Catholicism?

How can we update, modernize, to be better for you? And the idea is through this process of

synodality, we will renew our church and renew ourselves and become even better and better and

better while our numbers decline, decline, decline. It's essentially Vatican III, and I was actually

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