Above: Reconstruction of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, p/c S. Meyssonnier at Reuters.
The Overton Window is what a group thinks to be believable in the eyes of others in its attempts to grow their faction in numbers. The left uses the Overton Window to determine which lies they can get away with as they approach the left-of-center in a bell-curve of opinion polls. The right also uses the Overton Window, but they use it to determine which aspects of the truth can be digested by the lukewarm on the right of the same bellcurve. Fiducia Supplicans greatly shifted the leftists’ Overton Window on heresy to the point that even many non-traditional conservatives have raised some alarms about “schism” regarding the current teachings coming out of the Vatican.
But are non-traditional conservatives even using that term “schism” correctly?
Their concern for unity in the Catholic Church is genuine. However, they are starting with several false major-premises. Let’s clear this up: Heresy is diversion from a thing (namely, the deposit of the faith.) Schism is diversion from a person (namely, the Pope.) But this is only in regards to a valid Pope. God has wired the Catholic Church that you will never have to choose between being a heretic and a schismatic. Thus, what does that tell you about the current state of the Vatican? Hint: You can never be “a schismatic” by avoiding manifest and obstinate heresy.
Recently, Deacon Nick Donnelly (formerly featured on EWTN before he started speaking too many unpopular truths) put on Twitter: “Let’s be clear, the schism already exists. Those dioceses that are allowing defiant sinners, such as adulterers, fornicators and sodomites to receive Holy Communion are no longer part of the Catholic Church. This schism is even more apparent with dioceses allowing the blessing of homosexuals engaging in homosexual sex acts…”
Deacon Nick Donnelly is not a 58-sedevacantist. But Deacon Nick Donnelly recognizes that a faithful Catholic can not be a “schismatic” for standing against “fornicators and sodomites receiving Holy Communion” (at least without repentance and confession.) Thus, the good Deacon cannot be a schismatic for opposing heresy. (See also my article called You Cannot Be a Schismatic For Keeping the Faith.)
Recently, in an interview at Communio, the “progressive” Cardinal Kasper of Germany surprisingly criticized the bishops of Germany in light of the recent Synod on Synodality. It seems he criticized the German bishops for going too fast into progressing the teaching of the Church. Why would a leftist like Kasper want to pump the brakes on the other German bishops on this front? Because he wants the Overton Window on dogma moved by the Vatican, not by the bishops. Another German Catholic news outlet then released an article titled “Pope is a great advocate of the diaconate for women.” Archbishop Viganó warned about these fake-attempts to soon ordain women. The enemies of the Church want the destruction of Holy Orders coming from the alleged-top, not from middle-management.
Why would leftists want to prevent a so-called “schism”? Similar to what we saw in early 2024 in Texans defending their border against Biden’s Federal government wanting to keep it open, you have to realize: The bad-guys don’t want the good-guys to break from them. Let me rephrase that: The leftists do not want the conservatives or traditionalists to break away from the structure they hijacked from the conservatives and traditionalists. Why? Because the bad-guys need the good-guys, not vice versa. Over the past 100 years, the left has only ever been parasites on the right. The liberal destroyers have only ever been parasites on the co-creators. Again, this is true in both the United States and the Catholic Church.
As to solutions, I’m not saying Texas should break from the Union or that traditional Catholics should create a new hierarchy. I’m simply pointing out: An internal division (in the general sense of a “rip,” not in the specific definition of “schism”) already exists in the Catholic Church. When that internal “rip” becomes an external one, we will finally have a great-relief that will greatly benefit traditional Catholics. This is true, even if we continue to be only 1% of the world’s population of Catholics. This would finally be a pressure release-valve for two “faiths” (one true and one false—the latter being no “faith” at all, clearly) to stop occupying the same Church buildings and chanceries.
Remember, the left needs the right. The progressives need the traditionalists, not vice versa. That’s why the liberals won’t leave Catholic buildings even as they promote a soteriology no different from Universalist Unitarianianism (the soteriology we hear from the Vatican nearly daily at this point.) But this is why the “good-guys” have only to keep the Apostolic Faith and Apostolic Liturgy, regardless of who calls you “a schismatic” for holding to what every saint taught for nearly 2,000 years.
The bad-guys are about to cook their own goose by moving the Overton Window too fast. This means the good-guys will come out on top. Fiducia Sodomons is just the beginning of the end for them. Women’s ordination may be the end of the madness that cracks the Church in two. At least, this might be the true as we have no Cardinals courageous enough to point out the obvious on Pope Benedict’s alleged-resignation 11 years ago this week.
Ultimately (or penultimately) I suppose we have to permit the leftist-destroyers to keep pushing these heresies until that ecclesial pressure release-valve produce a purified remnant of charitable Apostolic Catholics, and a Prelate we can all follow. It might only shake out a small percentage of Catholics in the right direction, but Jesus Christ will continue to prove Himself in charge of His Church—a Church that officially teaches that apostates are not part of her Mystical Body. (Sinners, yes, but not apostates.) So, don’t fear—the bad guys are not even Catholic. “It is a fact that they have the premises─but you have the apostolic Faith.”—St. Athanasius to the faithful who avoided the Arian heresies.
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