The Silent Schism

The Catholic Church is in Schism and People Just Haven't Gotten the Memo.

When one thinks of the aftermath of a schism, or fracture of any kind, most are enticed to think of dramatic proclamations, harsh words being said, people being sacked, and hard battle lines being drawn. Bishops are supposed to come down on both sides, shouting condemnation and damnation to their enemies. It’s supposed to be dramatic, it’s supposed to be BOLD.

In reality, the Catholic schism has not come off with a bang with new popes, anti-popes, and militant congregations, but the whimper of a document called Fiducia Supplicans.

The document is a word-salad mess that is bound to insult the intelligence of everyone reading it. It starts by stating the marriage is between one man and one woman, references the document issued two years ago that same-sex unions can not be blessed, goes over the history and purpose of blessings, then throws it all aside with the bombshell of paragraph 31, essentially throwing everything written in this extensive document away and just making up a new rule entirely.

One article described the document as a “Black Hole”, and I can’t think of a more apt description. There is no logic here, no even superficial appeal to any sort of tradition, and was clearly written to be as ambiguous as possible to give the Pope-splainers some cover as to what is really going on.

Now, this has been in the playbook for decades. We saw this with the fiasco that was the “debate” over communion for the divorced and remarried, culminating in documents that were absurdly ambiguous to create cover for both sides. Then there was the laughable Pachamama scandal where people were clearly giving adulation to a pagan idol. While incredibly evil, the core elements of the faith are still intact. Even if the Vatican is a den of homosexuals sodomizing each other and worshipping demons, the deposit of faith is still protected as long as these same people don’t preach a new doctrine. The closest they reached in new doctrine was The Death Penalty, which was updated as “inadmissible” in modern times. Since this is essentially a prudential (and incorrect)” judgement that doesn’t say it is immoral intrinsically, it could still pass, as stupid as it is.

One thing I immediately noticed is the usual song and dance online did not work, at all. Every other time, either the conservative Catholics would ether explain how this wasn’t REALLY an update in doctrine, how it’s just being misapplied, or their own word salad talking about the nuances of the document. In other words, they played their role as beautiful losers. They would, at most, chide the Vatican for being so ambiguous while arguing the Deposit of Faith has not been altered. While technically true, that was beside the point, and they knew it.

They tried this time, and got utterly blown out. The popesplainers quickly realized that their usual rhetoric not only didn’t work, but just galvanized and other people on their side who could see what this obviously was. Every conservative Catholic periodical, instead of giving a weak tut-tut, went ablaze with condemnation of this atrocity of this document. It was clear the intent of this document, and Jimmy Martin wasted no time in making it clear.

The popesplainers had to argue that OF COURSE James Martin will get punished, since THAT’S NOT WHAT THE DOCUMENT SAID.

LOL. LMAO.

Now the Bishops are entering the fray, the German Bishops giddy that of what they see as a blank chekc to bless homosexual couples in any way they see fit, going as far as to far they will FORCE priests to bless them. And they are not alone either, as some Cardinals have said similar things.

Meanwhile, the USCCB basically said “Nothing has Changed”, the theological equivalent of putting one’s head in the sand, while the Diocese of Malawi has written what is about as close as you can get to a middle finger at the Vatican.

Then you have more diplomatic approaches, like from Schneider below.

Just look at this total mess of different responses from all over the world to get an understanding of how radical this document is. Everyone knows the game, the same game that has been played since Vatican II, and this was a step too far, and no one devout in their faith is playing ball anymore.

The conservative Dioceses know what the Vatican is up to, and while they won’t openly call them heretics, what you’re seeing is a great turning away, something that began when many Bishops outright ignored Traditionis Custodes and let Latin Masses go unabated.

So won’t the Pope just fire the Bishops who refuse, just like he did with Strickland? Yes, but there are other costs, up to and including Bishops, seeing the writing on the wall, pull a Marcel Lefebvre and appoint new Bishops, and those Bishops will ordain priests who the Vatican does not approve of. Push people too far and you have a total mess in your hands. For right now, until the Vatican gets too heavy handed, which they will, we are stuck with a weird, silent schism where some Bishops pretend the Vatican is Orthodox while utterly ignoring their heretical precepts. The conservative Bishops are looking around for allies to throw their weight around more, while the more moderate ones know that this is just hastening the collapse of the Faith in their diocese, and will result in more reactionary sects, like the SSPX, gaining power. They will, in turn., the ignore the diocese completely, all the while gaining power and followers as the coffers of the Diocese run empty.

The radical Bishops, of course, don’t care about the destruction of the faithful, and the Germans don’t care as long as people put “Catholic” on their tax forms. But they are still bound to seem legitimate, and it’s hard to have legitimacy when you are destroying the very foundation of said legitimacy. The Bishops don’t have armies. They can’t force priests to Bless sodomite couples, and rely on a vow of obedience, a vow that makes less sense the less their Bishop seems to care about actually being Catholic.

Catholics are living in interesting times, the time of the Silent Schism, and the more we understand this, the better chance they have of coming out intact.