Bishop Demetrio Fernandez of Cordoba, Spain, has expressed concern that the Synod on Synodality “has stirred up waters” in the Church, encouraging unrealistic expectations.

A Synod meeting cannot change the fundamental mission that Christ entrusted to the Church, the bishop said. But he remarked that the discussions leading up to the Synod have shown that there is “no lack of people who confuse the Holy Spirit with their own strange ideas.”

Bishop Fernandez warned that “if all this movement distracts us in words and words, in meetings and in groups, in encounters at all levels, spending time and energy, and we do not convert, that does not come from God.”