VIDEO: The Good Schism

I hate the title, but you see what he's getting at: which is that faithful Catholics have pretty much abandoned the official, institutional Church.

Which is grossly unfortunate. Because one of the marks of Catholicism is union with the bishop.

No bishop, no church.

But because so many of the bishops are lukewarm in their adherence and proclamation of the Catholic faith, it's like we're forced to become a church unto ourselves to live out the teachings as they are set down by the Magisterium.

But in trying to be faithful to the Magisterium and distancing ourselves from the bishop and his entourage, we're becoming like protestants.

Ironic, eh?

Why do peope like Fr. Corapi, and Scott Hahn, and the whole Catholic celebrity star system attract so many faithful?

Because the Catholic faithful are starving.

It's not that Scott Hahn shouldn't have an audience-- he's a good guy.

But really, that kind of attachment we see towards some authors should be reserved to a bishop who tells it like it is.

It's a bit unnatural to hang on the words of simple priests and laypeople when it's the bishop who is the primary person responsible for feeding the flock.

How many bishops really deliver the faith in the fullness of the truth, with no modernism, no fear of hard truths, no fear of political correctness, no secular academic brainwashing?

I can't think of too many.

The bishops are busy doing everything BUT preaching the word, preaching the wholeness of Catholic teaching. Of course they give homelies and speeches and print messages. Dull dreary things that do not inspire. Messages so safe, so namby-pamby you wonder why you bother reading them at all.

At least if they quoted Church Fathers or the great writers of the ages, it might jolt a few Catholics out of their comfort zones.

But there's often no sense of organic continuity with the Catholic doctrinal and philosophical tradition. What the bishops say is often bound up in limp pop psychology and sing-song Christianity that a lot of us know off hand.

You know, this is why The Pope's book on Jesus is such a best seller and such fascinating read.

There's nothing in there that you've seen before. It's all brand new even to well-read Catholics such as myself. On every page you get a spanking new insight, a new fact that no one has ever told you before.

It's good to be reminded of basic Catholic teachings. But "love one another" becomes old, and we need a little more meat on the bone for that one.

Well the Pope offers a feast.

You don't get that kind of feast from the bishops today.  You don't even get the basic Church teachings.

And so that explains why orthodox Catholics huddle together in their communities, especially online.

I wish to God the bishops and the professional Catholic class would get it.

But I get the feeling the vast majority of them simply do not care and would almost rather not deal with us. They're too busy implementing their insipid agendas.