Replies

Another one.

Catholic history indicate that it cannot seem to go more than 500 years without some major upheaval.

There was the Great Schism in 1054 AD when the EO and Rome split off from each other.

Then there was the Protestant Reformation in the 1500’s.

Now, here we are 500 years later and people are calling for Catholicism to get back to its roots again.

And dollars to donuts, the reaction of the church hierarchy will be the same. Double down on their wrong direction and then condemn as not being Catholic, those who disagree with them.

Historian Christopher Dawson pegs it at six distinct "ages", 300-400 year periods of time: each cycle begins with great advancement ans ends with decline and loss --- then renewal into the next age.

Of course, there are different ways to slice it --- these are rough estimates --- but Dawson maps it out thus:

Apostolic Age, AD 33 - 315
Contantinian Age, 4th through 7th centuries
Barbarian Invasion Age, 7th through 9th centuries
High Middle Ages, 10th through 13th centuries
Renaissance, 14th - 16th century
Age of Revolutions 16th - 19th centuries
followed by the present, seventh age, roughly...
Age of Civilizational Suicide/World Delusion, then Remnant and Rebirth of Truth, 20th century to present and foreseeable future.

That last category was named by me, and seems to be where we're at. By "we" I mean all of us,

I would dispute your assessment that "reaction of the church hierarchy will be the same. Double down on their wrong direction."

I would say, rather, that six times (at least) it looked like the Church was finished, both via external assault and internal collapse. Six times, by the grace of God, the Church repented its sins and weaknesses, resurged and outlived its would-be undertakers.

We'll see how our Savior will deal with us on this seventh. I honestly think it might be the last, but that's been said before.

"The whole course of Christianity from the first ... is but one series of troubles and disorders. Every century is like every other, and to those who live in it seems worse than all times before it. The Church is ever ailing ... Religion seems ever expiring, schisms dominant, the light of truth dim, its adherents scattered. The cause of Christ is ever in its last agony."
-Blessed John Henry Newman, Via Media (1834)

"All times are dangerous times."

- St. Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church (1515-1580)