Sollemnis Romanae Synodi inchoatio (1960.01.24)
The allocution “Sollemnis Romanae Synodi inchoatio,” delivered by John XXIII in the Lateran Archbasilica on 24 January 1960, presents his theological and pastoral program on the eve of the so‑called Roman Synod and in explicit connection with the announced “ecumenical council” that would become Vatican II. He recalls the apostolic Council of Jerusalem, surveys the history of ecumenical councils up to Vatican I, glorifies the conciliar mechanism as an engine of aggiornamento, introduces the Roman Synod as a paradigmatic diocesan event, and outlines broad areas for “renewal” in doctrine, discipline, liturgy, pastoral practice, and formation, under the invocation of the Holy Spirit and with emphatic appeals to unity, “pastoral” adaptation, and spiritual optimism. The entire discourse, while draped in traditional vocabulary, functions as a rhetorical smoke‑screen preparing the systematic subversion of immutable doctrine and discipline in favor of the conciliar sect’s naturalistic, humanistic, and ecumenical agenda — a calculated abuse of conciliar and patristic language to sanctify apostasy.










