Games Vatican bureaucrats play.

The 2nd move was predictable.

The 1st move, you’ll recall, was the release of a report by Study Group #9 for the Synod on Synodality. The document included praise for same-sex marriage and a denunciation of Courage, the group that supports Church teaching on homosexuality.

The 2nd move is the gentle reassurance from the Synod staff that the report is not policy, and does not necessarily reflect the thoughts of the people who prepared it. This is important, and presumably delivered with a straight face. The staff does not endorse the statements that appear in an appendix to the report. They’re just telling you what they’ve heard from other people.

And how were those “other people” chosen, I wonder? It’s just happenstance, I suppose, that the study group heard from gay activists— from friends of Father James Martin— but not from, say, Courage?

Funny: When was the last time a Vatican “working document” appeared to support a conservative position, or denounce a “progressive” organization? I can’t remember.