A schism that developed in 2018 over same-sex marriage blessings in the NZ Anglican church is being further inflamed by what is seen as meddling from Sydney’s ultra-conservative diocese. The Sydney diocese, which opposes same-sex marriage blessings, has indicated to the Anglican Church in Aotearoa New Zealand & Polynesia (ACANZP) that organised religion in New Zealand Read more
Every Christian must preserve the communion of the Church; it does not mean uniformity but rather a way of living with differences. So says Father Sylvain Brison, ecclesiologist, assistant professor at the Faculty of Theology of the Catholic Institute of Paris. Brison unpacks the pope’s comments about schism in the Church with Anne-Bénédicte Hoffner. Are we Read more
Europe is sick. Despite its apparent material success, a spiritual sickness pervades it that politics will not cure. Pope Francis shares this view. In the United States, the pope may be known as a sharp critic of President Trump, but he has also been vocal about the trends that have led to populist backlashes in Read more
Pope Francis spoke openly for the first time this week about the possibility of a US Catholic conservative-led schism. His frank comments were made during a press conference while he was flying home after visiting Mozambique, Madagascar and Mauritius. There have been many schisms in the Church’s 2,000-year history, he noted. Although he said he Read more
I have a modest proposal for the U.S. bishops’ conference. They should scrap their entire agenda for the upcoming November plenary and address a single question: To what degree are the seeds of a de facto schism being sown within the U.S. church? Last week, a friend called my attention to a website called “Faithful Read more
Three US bishops are “devout schismatics” who try to diminish the authority of Pope Francis, says a Church historian. “They are devout in the sense that they publicly display their preference for a traditionalist Church and its devotions, such as the rosary. “They are schismatics because they openly promote the undermining of the bishop of Read more
The question of whether to accept LGBTQ Christians into the fold is causing a schism in the United Methodist Church. America’s third-largest religious denomination is likely break apart over its members’ inability to reconcile differing opinions on whether to affirm LGBTQ Christians. Delegates to the church’s General Conference ended a three-day meeting on Tuesday by Read more
Italian Catholic priest Alessandro Minutella has been excommunicated for spreading “heresy and schism.” The Archdiocese of Palermo has published the formal decree concerning Minutella’s “latae sententiae” excommunication. In canon law, once certain crimes are committed, they are punished latae sententiae, or “automatically,” by force of the law itself. According to the Code of Canon Law, Read more
As the U.S. Catholic bishops gather in Baltimore to discuss controversial issues such as clerical sexual abuse and racism, some people are talking about the threat of schism. History shows that the possibility of schism is always present, but the odds against schism today are high. First, in order to have a schism, you need Read more
The publication of the “testimony” of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former Vatican nuncio to the United States, is an unprecedented moment in modern church history—and not just because of his demand that Pope Francis resign. The eleven-page document, crafted and published by Viganò with the help of sympathetic Catholic journalists while the pope was Read more