The Importance of the Bishop.

Or, you can't have a synod without a bishop.
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St. Ignatius of Antioch became one of the first to write on the importance of the bishop in the life of the Church.  In his letter to the Church of Smyrna he stated, "Wherever the bishop appears, there let the people be, even as wherever Christ Jesus appears, there is the Catholic Church."  I took this quote from the EWTN library rather than look through my books for relevant quotes on the necessity of the bishop who, no matter his age, "embodies the authority of God the Father."
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Many of us have at times expressed disappointment in some of the bishops of the Catholic Church for one reason or another, especially after the terrible scandals which have chastened the Church in recent decades.  Many times we might have signalled out a particular bishop when in fact our criticism ought to have been directed towards the bureaucracy created around that bishop(s).  This accounts for some of the watchdog monitoring of USCCB press releases and policies - that is not a bad thing BTW.  Even though we hear of 'bad' bishops from time to time, we cannot forget the primacy of the bishop(s); that where the bishop is, there is the Church.  As St. Ignatius wrote, "The bishop is to preside in the place of God, while the priests are to function as the council of the apostles, and the deacons, who are most dear to me, are entrusted with the ministry of Jesus Christ." 
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As Canon Law makes clear, "By divine institution, Bishops succeed the Apostles through the Holy Spirit who is given to them.  They are constituted Pastors in the Church, to be teachers of doctrine, the priests of sacred worship and the ministers of governance." [Can. 375].
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So anyway...
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This weekend a group of Catholics are gathering in the Twin Cities to hold a 'synod' for Church reform.  The group calls itself Catholic Coalition for Church Reform, and they are meeting as the Synod of the Baptized: "Claiming Our Place at the Table"!  The group appears to have 500 registered attendees.  CCCR is in no way sanctioned by the Catholic Church or any diocese or archdiocese in the world.  In other words, they are acting with out the approval or recognition of the local ordinary, Archbishop Nienstedt, and therefore they are not representative of the Catholic Church - despite their claim, "we are church".
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How queer. 

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Art: CCCR Synod logo