Of course formal schisms are worse. The Great Schism began processes back in 1054 that have evolved in disastrous ways to this day. But most of the schismatic Churches of the East maintain until this day the main teachings and dogmas of the Church and most importantly all of the Sacraments especially Holy Orders and Apostolic Succession.
Schism, though, in Catholic usage means rejection of the universal authority of the pope over the Church in the areas of the revealed faith and morals of the Church, as well as canonical discipline and her perennial magisterium which the pope must uphold.
Today, we have some manifest schisms. A small group of Poor Clare nuns in Spain are in schism. A few groups in America who have ordained women are in schism. The former bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska a few years back excommunicated a few liberal groups in his diocese. I don’t think those excommunications have been lifted.
And now we have Archbishop Viganò, who in fact is the religious “Joe Biden” being used as a puppet by those who are the power behind the man. Vigano, like President Biden, is suffering from mental issues of age or worse but being used by the sane or cognitive for their own purposes.
But the greater silent schism comprise a massive majority in the Church. They are those who have disengaged from the Church but not in a formal renouncement. Added to them are those who have joined other sects of the Protestant tradition, especially the growing non-denominational movement. A smaller group, perhaps, are those who have joined other religions, like Judaism, Islam, Buddhists and the like.
A larger group and growing exponentially are those who claim no religion although they like to say they are spiritual. Many call them the “nones.”
This silent schism comprises about 70% to 90% percent of baptized Catholics. The remaining 5% to 30% of Catholics who practice their faith by going to Mass regularly, of them, many do not accept important doctrines and moral teachings of the Church. They see no problem with abortion, birth control, LGBTQF+++ ideologies, the ordination of women or so-called “non-binary” people.
These Catholics aren’t organized under any schismatic banner; it’s more a function of the fierce individualism that we are experiencing in our Church today.
What to do? What to do? Oh! What are we to do?
2 comments:
Well, they never are quite that simple, the "Great Schism" goes back about to Paul's time, clever Greek sophists trying forever to tangle what he preached into word games, true philosophers in short supply by that time, and playing word games a Greek and the Roman national pass-time...
so, no suprise the Greek Churches a source of argument from inception, problems exponentially multiplied when the Imperial capitol moved from Rome to Constantinople and the Emperors and their courts began taking sides in assorted disagreements and word games, and Greeks seeing the Imperial capitol as ruler of Christianity apart from Apostolic origin of Rome as final arbiter.
Despite schismatic and heretical tendencies, in fact the Greeks totally subscribed off and on to Roman Catholic approved doctrine numerous times, much of the off times driven as much by Imperial politics/power consolidation as any religious disagreement, the final split driven as much by hotheads at the top of both Churches who refused to show any sign of perceived weakness, muddled greatly by poor and untimely communcations between them.
Much of which above problems exist today....those Poor Clares are a tragedy, and doubt much effort was made in finding someone who could meet with them and convince them that although there were some valid gripes on their side, that their path was needlessly destructive where all they needed do was wait a bit longer for better days and fuller understanding, rather than fighting openly against the powers who owned their own house and could boot them out the door ...
As for being a schismatic, I hold to scripture, the Church Fathers, ancient doctrines, all the assorted councils, think only three of the last seven popes were not destructive to the Faith, one of the three lived only 33 days after taking office, and the last one a borderline heretic if not one indeed...and the majority of priests and bishops unable to do their primary duty of uniting themselves to God and then guiding their flocks to that same end, and them essentially tenured sacrament dispensing branch office managers, and them likely thinking me a schismatic for not supporting them in exchange for sacraments they themselves withold from me at their own whim after they themselves violated their own tenents of holy obligation and profane the collected money on any number of causes directly opposed to Church teachings, and most of the rest on worldly causes well outside the primary mission, vast sums spent aiding non-Catholics as own members suffer essentially unaided, while nearly all churchmen live and retire better than the majority of worldwide Catholics...what's not to like?
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