[livius]

¡Ojalá! (Spanish for "I wish it were!") Unfortunately, I don't think they're in retreat at all.

I was in Spain last week, and chats with various Spanish friends revealed that things are just as bad there. Well, less so, because the population of Spain is now considerably less religious than it was, so the scandal of clerical misbehavior and heterodox teaching have much less impact than they might have once.

One of my friends (who is in el Opus) suggested that perhaps we'd end up with a smaller church of more convinced members. This may be true, but I'll bet that the folks who are going to get all of the property, the old church buildings, and perhaps even the name of "Catholic" are going to be the heretics, who are much more powerful than the orthodox.

God can make great things out of little, insignificant things, of course, so I don't think we should write off the tiny band of orthodox (which probably includes most of us on this forum). But I don't think it's going to happen automatically and without a struggle.

[Catholicguy]

. One of my friends (who is in el Opus) suggested that perhaps we'd end up with a smaller church of more convinced members.

<> Card. Ratzinger is reported as having said almost those exact words.<>