NO LONGER ONE: THE DE FACTO SCHISM WITHIN THE CHURCH

The Catholic Church today finds itself in a condition of objective schism over matters pertaining to both faith and morals.

After some 44 years of Priesthood, that statement is most difficult and disturbing to admit.

More sadly, this is nothing new.

The Church has been in a state of de facto schism for most of my adult life.

In 1968 (six years prior to my Ordination), the Church found itself irreversibly wounded by the dissent which greeted Blessed Pope Paul VI’s encyclical which had reiterated the ancient doctrinal teachings of the Church concerning the objective moral evil of artificial contraception.

The negative response and harsh criticism of Humanae Vitae amounted to a contradictory morality with so-called Catholic Clergy and laity denying the existence of intrinsically evil actions, acts never permissable because they violate both the Natural Law and the good of persons.  

This opposing and contradictory “Catholic” morality was never adequately addressed and refuted by the Bishops.  Eventually, it became generally accepted and encouraged a rejection of Church teaching regarding a host of morally offensive actions which had been defined as intrinsically evil.

In the half century that has transpired since that time, the division within the Church over matters pertaining to faith and morals has become both resolute and obstinate.

Today, the de facto schism which continues is manifest in reactions to another Papal teaching, Amoris Laetitia, with some Bishops and Clergy in union with the Pope holding that invalidly remarried Catholic divorcees, in certain situations, may avail themselves of Holy Communion while remaining sexually active with their partners.  

At the same time, other Bishops and Clergy are equally demanding in their assertion that traditional Catholic teaching holds that such a position is not and never can be permissable.

Both Humane Vitae and Amoris Laetitia showcase the conflicting and contradictory interpretations which prevail and coexist in the Church today.  

And because these interpretations concern matters which are infallibly affirmed by Sacred Scripture and Tradition, the unity that should and must exist within the Church is broken.  

For if these contradictory teachings are true, then the Church’s teachings regarding the indissolubility of marriage, the intrinsically evil act of adultery, and the sacrilege of unworthy reception of Holy Communion must themselves be redefined in such a way that those engaged in such adulterous relationships are not doing anything objectively wrong. 

But this can only be the case if adultery is sometimes licit, or marriage is sometimes dissoluble.

What is serious about this division is that it exists, not solely among the laity, but more critically among the Bishops, some of whom recognize a contradiction and oppose pastoral initiatives allowing invalidly married Catholics to receive Holy Communion and others denying any conflict and granting such permission.

The Church is no longer one in matters of faith and morals.

The Catholic hierarchy presently exists in a state of grave disunity regarding the Deposit of Faith, Scripture and Tradition.

For their part, the Catholic faithful are either ignorant or indifferent to anything the official teaching authority of the Church has to say about almost anything.

Amoris Laetitia is not the cause of this state of schism, it serves only as the most recent occasion by which divisions are re-affirmed and deepened.  

It is difficult to determine the pathway forward.

In days of old, bold Clerics or lay persons would appear on the stage of Church history and proclaim a particular teaching as truth or heresy, calling others to remain faithful to the Church or follow them in formally establishing schismatic sects.

I think those days are over and gone forever.

These days, the choice to remain or disassociate oneself from the Church is quieter, almost anonymous.  

Some will simply and silently continue in attending Holy Mass and receiving the Sacraments as they always have.

Then there are the others who, in their quiet departure, will abandon their faith in the teaching authority of the Vicar of Christ and the Bishops.  

This is the sad but real state of Oneness in the Church today.

But listening to the Holy Father and the Bishops, you’d never know.

And that is sadder still.