Lessons From the Titanic for the Synodal Church

In Why Did The Titanic Sink?, writer Sarah Pruitt puts forth seven possible reasons why this tragedy took place in April of 1912. I'd like to briefly outline these seven reasons and offer a corresponding analogous warning for each one as it pertains to the "synodal Church" preparing to set sail from the port of Rome currently. 

It was traveling too fast. The Titanic was traveling at 22 knots through iceberg-heavy waters; some speculate the skipper was trying to best a speed record.

The wireless radio operator dismissed a key iceberg warning. When a nearby ship (the Californian) radioed the Titanic to warn the crew about the ice, they dismissed the warning because they considered it "non-urgent" and did not necessitate a direct acknowledgment because it lacked the prefix MSG (Master's Service Gram).

It may have taken a fatal wrong turn. One of the crew members became confused--perhaps owing to the fact that ships at the time operated on two different steering order systems--when told to turn the ship starboard and instead of turning away from the iceberg, went directly into it

The Titanic’s builders tried to cut costs. The more than 3 million rivets holding the hull's steel plates together contained a high concentration of low-grade "slag," causing the hull to break apart on impact.

Mirages and hazy horizons were created by weather conditions. One British historian claims that an atmospheric condition known as "super refraction" took place on the night of the Titanic sinking, creating mirages or optical illusions that prevented the lookouts from seeing the iceberg clearly.

The lookouts had no binoculars with which to see icebergs; a simple but overlooked precaution.

There weren’t enough lifeboats. The civil servant who inspected the Titanic felt that the ship needed at least 50% more lifeboats than it had, but gave the ship the go ahead anyway for fear of losing his job should he have delayed the go-ahead.

Regarding the speed at which the Titanic was traveling as it relates to the synodal Church, it is a common cry from so-called "reformers" that change cannot happen fast enough. Whether that is women's ordination, a blessing of same-sex unions, or even defining what the mission of the Church is, what we see during this ram-shod Synod on Synodality convening is an eschewing of Tradition, and racing towards a new horizon. Whether this is motivated by the Holy Father's own desire to exact this change in his lifetime, or those of his inner-circle I cannot speculate on.

Regarding the dismissal of warnings, we can look to the dubia questions presented to the Holy Father by Cardinals Brandmüller, Burke, Zen Ze-Kiun, Sandoval Íñiguez, and Sarah as the concerns for the direction the Church is heading under the guise of "synodality." While the Holy Father did respond to the dubia (somewhat nebulously) put forth by these prelates, their "conservative" reputation and outlier status seems to be grounds for not taking their concerns to heart, much like the lack of the "MSG" prefix that accompanied the warning from the Californian to the Titanic.

Regarding the confusion of the crewmembers with which direction to steer the ship, one may point to the perception of "two parallel liturgical rites" within the Roman Church--the "ordinary" and the "extraordinary" form of the Mass, as Pope Benedict XVI referred to them. Many bishops--acting as crew members--are being ordered to celebrate one and suppress the other, causing confusion for their priests. When all signs point to a renewal in the Church by way of a return to tradition to dodge the icebergs of modernity, many are being ordered (or are simply confused) to turn the other direction--away from the "rigidity" of traditional practices and towards the novel and nouveu in the wake of Traditionis Custodes.

Regarding the cutting of costs and the use of low-grade "slag," the de-emphasis of the vertical axis of worship in favor of the horizontal/anthropological has broken apart the hull of faith for countless Catholics. Is the Church the Barque of true faith? Or is it merely a charitable religious NGO? Faith is not always dismantled in one fatal crash; but the cheaping-out on millions of rivits (with the watering down of divine truth) will over time weaken the vessel and make it susceptible to destruction. 

Regarding the mirages caused by super-refraction, we can see this all around us: the mirage of a global utopia and "bending" of truth by Satan himself roaming to and fro on the earth to convince Catholics that an adherence to the law of God is optional, or that those who believe what the Church teaches or do adhere to this divine law are somehow "rigid" and "backwards looking." 

Regarding the lack of binoculars, traditional Catholics know the power of sacramentals--the brown scapular, the Miraculous Medal and St. Benedict medal, blessed and exorcised salt and holy water, relics, etc. These are accessible to anyone who wants more tools in their spiritual toolbox to navigate the minefield of demonic icebergs in the sea, but as sacramentals they only have spiritual effect when activated by faith. There is no emphasis or elevation of such things in a synodal Church--in fact, the de-emphasis of such "superstitions" is more the norm. Instead, we have traded our spiritual binoculars for "dialogue" and "inclusivity."

Regarding the lack of lifeboats, the Church, like the Titanic, is thought to be "unsinkable." Of course we know the promise of our Lord that the gates of Hell will not prevail against Her--but that doesn't mean She can't run aground. And that seems to be precisely what the Church (and those steering the vessel) under this guise of "synodality" is seeking to do. Catholics who care about their faith and seek to preserve it and save their children from this wicked generation are building their own lifeboats when the Church fails to stock them--intentional communities, vibrant traditional parishes (or alternative enclaves of refuge, when those communities have been stripped away by their bishops), faithful priests delivering meaty exhortations from the pulpit, and solid sources of catechesis are just a few examples. They are not finding these life-saving measures stocked in the storerooms of the nouveu-Church. So they are banding together to chip in to buy (or build) their own.

When the Titanic struck a massive iceberg on that fateful April night, these seven factors may have caused it's demise. Many perished that night, but it would have been much more were it not for the valiant and determined deployment of the RMS Carpathia to rescue those who had not succumbed yet to hypothermia or drowning. It was not an opulent ship (there were no first-class accommodations), but when the distress call came in from the Titanic on April 15th, Captain Arthur Henry Rostron (a pious man of faith and devout Christian believer) pushed the vessel at 17 knots through ice-berg choked waters and rescued 705 passengers from the Titanic. Asked later how he performed such a feat, he simply replied, "I can only conclude another hand than mine was on the helm."   

The unfolding story of the Church in our epoch cannot be told apart from the story of the Carpathia. For every prelate cloaked in a blanket of corruption and every lukewarm priest and unbelieving bishop, there is a faithful lay Catholic man and woman eschewing the hubris of titanic overconfidence and quietly preparing his lifeboat. For the icebergs of destruction on the horizon are emerging into full view, and they know they must suffer in cold and hunger, and cling to their faith in the black sea of faithlessness. They are laborers, evangelists, hold-outs pulling each other aboard as rescuers. They are diligently getting up at dawn, day after day, to pull in the harvest before it rots on the vine while the landowner dialogues with his friends miles away. They draw their strength to do so not from perishable provisions, but from deep wells of faith and the fine manna of trust. For their faith is in Christ, the Rock of salvation; anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces and anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.

While the call goes out for more "involvement" of the laity, they don't happen to hear it because they are immersed in work--seeds to sow, children to rear, lessons to teach, faith to transmit, churches to build, bodies to carry. The harvest is great, and the workers are few. And so they pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out more workers to join them in the rescue, pulling bodies from the sea one by one; not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.