[BlessedBeGod]

Those are my impressions, anyway. As I said, look for a real Catholic to set us both straight if necessary.

Sounds good to me. The only thing I'd add is that the word "schism" is being bandied about by people who are NOT prone to hysterics.

[Hat-Trick]

Again, thank you all for your time and edification. I will definitely start paying closer attention to this and to the threads here on FR. We definitely live in interesting, dangerous times.

[Fantasywriter]

Thank you. I’ll need to research the way in which schism is being discussed.

Meanwhile, I am very grateful for *your* summary. I had no idea Muller had been in a position to override the Pope on doctrinal matters. That was an extremely helpful insight. To think Muller (apparently) tried to play it safe, only to be shunted aside. That is food for thought.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Good summary, thanks all around. I would only add that

• Since no pope can straight-out change doctrine, Pope Francis has consistently mapped-out a strategic policy of ambiguity, equivocation, implication, wink-and-nod, and fudging. This utterly lacks intellectual, let alone spiritual, integrity.

  Francis tries to maintain "plausible deniability," which makes it hard to pin him for intentional doctrinal mutiny and malpractice (a term I am using as a synonym for formal heresy.)

• The "presenting issue" may seem prim and technical: the question of whether people living in a "second marriage" while a valid first marriage still exists, (i.e. objective adultery or bigamy) can be permitted to receive Communion.

  BUT the implications, which are now roaring out like water from a busted dam, are inundating everything: ALL Catholic moral discourse, ALL Catholic sacramental practice, ALL Catholic doctrine, is being swept away in the flood. This is because the principle of radical subjectivism is being deeply embedded into pastoral practice ("What if they don't feel as if they're doin' wrong?" etc.)

  This is enough to tear down the entire edifice of religious truth since it undermines the eternal and objective nature of God's Law.

I myself had been very slow to take an "alarmist" view of the Francis pontificate, but now I think it's practically impossible to overstate how serious this is.

What is at stake? Whether God is God.