This article originally appeared on WND.com
Guest by post by Bob Unruh
‘The war over the future of the church is far from over’
There have been a number of divisions in the Catholic Church since its stated foundation during the time of Jesus’ apostles.
One of the big events was the East-West schism in which the Roman Catholics separated from Eastern Orthodox churches in 1054 A.D. and each group went its own way.
There are others in the history books, and today, individual Catholic groups are deeply embroiled in disagreement over issues including the LGBT lifestyle choice, clerical sexual abuse, celebrating the liturgy and much more.
Religion News Service reported not long ago that Pope Francis’ Synod on Synodality recently found, “Participants felt this division as a profound sense of pain and anxiety.”
The report noted, “A controversy about whether Catholic pro-choice politicians, including President Joe Biden, should be allowed to receive Communion at Mass has fractured Catholic communities in recent years and led U.S. Bishops to launch a $28 million three-year process to ‘restore’ and ‘revive’ the Eucharist.”
Such division of opinion already has been described in published reports as scandalous.
And now it’s worse.
A report at Just the News explains that, “For the first time in recent memory, the ‘s-word’ is being dusted off and bandied in some circles.”
That word is schism.
The report said, “Just after the one-time Catholic Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was elected Pope Francis in 2013, he made an infamous lament over dinner with the cardinals who had just voted for him. ‘May God forgive you for what you’ve done,’ he said.
“Now, more than a decade later, an increasing number of church leaders openly agree with that sentiment, loudly bemoaning the direction taken by the first pontiff to be born in the Americas.”
In fact, “schism” is “being dusted off and bandied in same circles,” the report said.
Those talks mostly are being pushed by “progressive” changes that are being made by Francis, the pope, including how the church views homosexuals, transgenders, women, divorcees and more.
The pope also has been busy demoting multiple conservatives in the church hierarchy.
The report said the disagreements have gotten so serious “some 90 leading church thinkers – more than a dozen of them from the U.S. or with strong ties to the U.S. church – signed an open letter last week to ‘all cardinals and bishops of the Catholic church.’”
They are calling for Francis to withdraw a declaration from late last year that gave Catholic priests auathorization to “bless” homosexual duos. even though the Bible condemns homosexual behavior.
The report explained it’s just the latest extremist move by Francis, who earlier had been blasted for his criticisms of nationalism and capitalism.
The report noted, “Francis is now 87 and in poor health, which means his critics will probably have to wait out his papacy while launching barbs from the sidelines. But the war over the future of the church is far from over: The next battle will be over Francis’s successor.”
Just the News noted of the 130 or so “cardinal electors” for the church, Francis has appointed 95, all expected to be of his own liberal ideology.
Copyright 2024 WND News Center
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