It’s an unprecedented situation we’re in -— although the Catholic Church has had some terrible crises caused or exacerbated by bad popes in the past, this is the first and only time we have had a pope who is actually ideologically opposed to the Faith and Morals of the Church, as understood by all his predecessors -— even the knaves and fools among them.
There is serious question whether Pope Benedict abdicated lawfully, meaning fully and without coercion. There is also serious question whether the conclave that elected Pope Francis was lawful, in account of politicking prior to and concurrent with the voting. Then there’s the separate and serious question whether Francis has lawfully and formally forfeited the papacy on account of heresy.
So you’ll see Catholics, here at FR and elsewhere, worrying out loud about these controversies. Some eminent theologians have observed that the Church is already split, de facto if not de jure.
“...this is the first and only time we have had a pope who is actually ideologically opposed to the Faith and Morals of the Church”
That’s all part of the process to a One World Government and a One World Religion as prophesied in the Bible.
“Some eminent theologians have observed that the Church [I accept that the ‘Church’ means the Catholic Church] is already split”
Yes, and it will become more split as time goes on.
Many will continue to leave Catholicism and go to basic Biblical Christianity.