Our bishop (small diocese) wrote a good letter that was to be read at all masses yesterday...and a lot of the priests (older VII types) didn’t read it.
I attended a Tridentine Mass yesterday; the priest is also parish pastor of a Novus Ordo church...in his sermon, he addressed the issue of USSC meddling with the sacrament of Holy Matrimony, and he also spoke about the displeasure he got from his parishioners over the same sermon...he said to us “I could tell all of you one thing, and you won’t bat an eye, but my parishioners would think I’m crazy...’
I also believe the chink in the Catholic armor is some out of the way parish with a closet activist as priest; I believe two lesbians from a modern order will approach him to get married, and he will perform the ritual...it will take complicity on both parts to effect it...
in other words, no one will force the Church to concede...the Church shall do so on Her own...
I agree with you. That’s how it will happen. Treasonous or weak people within the Church will simply go along to get along, not even with the necessity of an official proclamation.
When Henry VIII proclaimed his own church, there was only one bishop who resisted. All of the other bishops and almost all of the secular clergy were perfectly fine with ripping out the statues of Our Lady and tearing down the crucifixes and doing whatever the newly empowered State told them to do.
The Pope (Clement VII) at the time was weak and had a track record of fleeing attacks on Rome. I don’t think he was complicit - although I’m not sure about the current Pope, and that’s one of the difficult things about this - but he didn’t deal with the situation very well.
The English people who resisted were for the most part simple laity and order priests. Of course, all the major religious orders here have already been undermined, so I guess it’s up to us laypeople now.