God willing, let it be so!!! The Church is already in de facto schism. It has been for decades now. One hopeful sign is that Pope Benedict was the mortal enemy of liberation theology as it was practiced in the 80's. That strain in Roman Catholic teaching will abide in the pontificate of Benedict. In that sense, among others, Benedict's pontificate is a scholarly extension of Pope John Paul II's. Oh holy men!! May Benedict live to be 100 years old.
Regarding the Church in America, I was cheered to see the bishops speak against abortion more concertedly than ever before. The bad news? Obama got more Catholic votes than any democrat candidate in years. Oh well, these things take time. Someday, faithful Catholics will be as reliably republican as their grandparents were reliably democrat. If the bishops keep speaking the truth, their efforts will bear fruit, God willing.
It's a time to separate the sheep from the goats, as the Lord put it in his Galilean idiom. If we lose contributions for a while, so be it. The gates/jaws of Hell will not prevail. From a mustard seed will grow the greatest tree on the plain, where many can find refuge. God's mills grind slow, but sure.
It strikes me that everything above can be written off as sing-songy truisms. But the thing about truisms is, they are true!! One of the deepest needs of our time is the straightforward proclamation of the simplest, deepest truths.
“Regarding the Church in America, I was cheered to see the bishops speak against abortion more concertedly than ever before. The bad news? Obama got more Catholic votes than any democrat candidate in years. “
I think its hard to draw any political conclusions from this last election.
Check out Dick MOrris’ post mortem in NEWSMAX. SOme surprising data there, including fact that less Republicans voted this time around.
I think most people voted the way they did this time around for several reasons:
a) McCain was a terrible canidate
b) McCain was viewed as too old
c) McCain had an unsavory reputation among his own party members
d)George Bush left a terrible legacy a a man who displeased his own base almost as much as the Democrats and didn’t appeal to independents
e) Media bias
f) The economy and its perceived threat to jobs and pensions and the perception the Reupblicans as the party in charge was responsible.
NONE of the above are in order of importance.
But I think that a lot of Catholic voters looked at the above issues and either didn’t vote, or the majority voted for Obama for the above reasons. I don’t think the vote was a referendum on social issues at all. Look at Proposition * in California.
The biased liberal media is trying to spin this election as a turn to the left. They are lying.
But of ALL the factors above, I blame George Bush II the most for the losses. The handwriting on the wall was the Midterms but he and his advisors like that idiot Rove, ignored them.