Cardinal Robert Prevost, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops, responded by saying that while the subject came up in the synodal discussions, it “was not meant to be the central topic of the synod. And so I’m not prepared to say that became the focus of the synod because that was not the synod’s purpose.”

But no matter how much Church leaders may wish to focus on other subjects, the question of the Church’s response to cases like Rupnik’s isn’t going away.

In fact, it could threaten the credibility of the entire synod, now three years in the making.

With news about Rupnik’s incardination making headlines in every major Catholic publication on the day that the synod released its Letter to the People of God, a failure to address the issue head-on could derail the entire synod – even among people who have been enthusiastically supportive of the process thus far.