ROME
Vatican Insider

“Silent schisms” and the Pope’s reminder about the essential elements of the Christian message

Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City

Although (understandably) a great deal of media attention has been given over the past weeks to the outcome of the dialogue between the Holy See and the Society of St. Pius X, the Fraternity founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre which could soon enter into full communion with the Catholic Church again, there is no doubt that a whole different kind of dissent of much vaster and widespread proportions is present in today’s Catholic Church. This dissent, which is spreading through central and northern Europe – in Austria, Germany, Belgium and Ireland – is leading groups of priests to sign appeals to disobedience, adopting highly critical stances against the “Roman” line of thought, on subjects such as sexuality, communion for remarried divorcees, priestly celibacy, female priesthood and the…