[Tantumergo]

Thanks for your info.

"So a minor mistake has somehow been ginned up into the Pope's desecration of the Eucharist."

I wish these people would give the Pope a break - they want him to be impeccable and infallible from the moment he wakes up each day to the moment he goes to sleep. As if he didn't have enough pressure already! Even if the Pope had given personal permission for this to happen, it would only amount to poor judgement - not heresy or apostasy.

It seems to me that both extreme traditionalists and extreme conservatives tend to feed off the same error:

the extreme traditionalist thinks that the authorities in the Church should never make human mistakes, so evidence of misjudgement, imprudence etc. is seen as evidence of heresy and apostasy.

the extreme conservative thinks that the authorities in the Church can never make human mistakes of misjudgement, imprudence etc. so everything they do/say must be followed to the letter and anyone who questions this is a heretic and apostate.

IMHO both views lead to a lot of unnecessary heat and polemic, even though both spring from worthy motivations.

[Polycarp]

And where does one find that peaceful middle ground between extreme traditionalist and "extreme" conservative? I like to think that is what I'm trying to do, but I doubt I'm having much real success at it here.