SOMEONE asked me the other day, “You are not leaving the Holy Father or the true magisterium, are you?” I was startled by the question. “No! what gave you that impression??” He said he wasn’t sure. So I reassured him that schism is not on the table. Period.
The Word of God
His question has come at a time when a fire has been burning in my soul for the Word of God. I mentioned this to my spiritual director, and even he was experiencing this internal hunger. Maybe you are too… It’s almost as if the controversies in the Church, the politics, the pettiness, the word games, the ambiguity, the endorsement of global agendas, etc. are driving 
me back into the raw, undiluted Word of God. I want to consume it.[1]And I do in the Holy Eucharist, for Jesus is the ‘Word made flesh’ (John 1:14) The Scriptures are never exhausted because they are living, always teaching, always nourishing, always enlightening the heart.
Indeed, the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)
And yet, we know as Catholics that subjective interpretation of Scripture has limits. That the ultimate meaning of Christ’s words were understood by and entrusted to the Apostles, and that their teaching has been handed on to us down through the centuries in apostolic succession.[2]see The Fundamental Problem So, to them whom Christ commissioned to teach us,[3]cf. Luke 10:16 and Matt 28:19-20 we turn for that unchanging and infallible Sacred Tradition[4]see The Unfolding Splendor of Truth — otherwise, there would be doctrinal chaos.
At the same time, the Pope and bishops in communion with him are but servants of the Word of God. As such we are all disciples of that Word, disciples of Jesus (see I am a Disciple of Jesus Christ). Hence….
…the Catholic Church is not the Pope’s Church and Catholics are therefore not papists but Christians. Christ is the head of the Church and from Him all divine grace and truth passes to the members of His body, which is the Church… Catholics are not the subjects of ecclesiastical superiors, to whom they owe blind caducal obedience as in a totalitarian political system. As persons in their conscience and prayer, they go directly to God in Christ and in the Holy Spirit. The act of faith is directed directly to God, while the magisterium of the bishops has only the task of faithfully and completely preserving the content of revelation (given in Sacred Scripture and Apostolic Tradition) and presenting it to the Church as revealed by God. —Cardinal Gerhard Müller, former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, January 18, 2024, Crisis Magazine
This basic definition is a perfectly timed shaft of light into the fog of confusion that has divided Catholics these past few weeks. The recent trials are due in large part to an exaggerated understanding of papal infallibility and even false expectations of the man who holds the office. As Cardinal Müller notes in the same interview, “In terms of theological depth and precision of expression, Pope Benedict was an exception rather than the norm in the eventful history of popes.” Indeed, we’ve enjoyed pristine instruction, even in the non-magisterial commentary of our popes this past century. Even I had come to the point of taking for granted the ease with which I could quote them…
Recovering Perspective
But the Argentinian pontiff is another story and a reminder that a pope’s infallibility is limited to the rare occasions that he “confirms his brethren in the faith [and] proclaims by a definitive act a doctrine pertaining to faith or morals.”[5]Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 891 Hence, fraternal correction is not beyond a pope — “the best known is the question of the heresy and excommunication of Pope Honorius I,” notes Cardinal Müller.[6]see The Great Fissure
Barque of Peter/Photo by James Day
Hence, I believe the Holy Spirit is using this present crisis to purge the Church of papolatry — the errant notion that our popes are “an absolute sovereign, whose thoughts and desires are law.”[7]POPE BENEDICT XVI, Homily of May 8, 2005; San Diego Union-Tribune While giving the appearance of holding fast to unity, this false belief actually causes ungodly division:
Whenever someone says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not merely human?… for no one can lay a foundation other than the one that is there, namely, Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 3:4, 11)
At the same time, Tradition itself affirms the primacy of Peter — and the impossibility of schism as a path for the flock:
If a man does not hold fast to this oneness of Peter, does he imagine that he still holds the faith? If he deserts the Chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built, has he still confidence that he is in the Church? — St. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, “On the Unity of the Catholic Church”, n. 4; The Faith of the Early Fathers, Vol. 1, pp. 220-221
They, therefore, walk in the path of dangerous error who believe that they can accept Christ as the Head of the Church, while not adhering loyally to His Vicar on earth. They have taken away the visible head, broken the visible bonds of unity and left the Mystical Body of the Redeemer so obscured and so maimed, that those who are seeking the haven of eternal salvation can neither see it nor find it. —POPE PIUS XII, Mystici Corporis Christi (On the Mystical Body of Christ), June 29, 1943; n. 41; vatican.va
That loyalty to the Pope is not absolute, however. It is due when he is exercising his “authentic magisterium”[8]Lumen Gentium, n. 25, vatican.va — expressing teachings or statements “which must, however, be explicitly or implicitly contained in revelation,” adds Cardinal Müller.[9]“Divine assistance is also given to the successors of the apostles, teaching in communion with the successor of Peter, and, in a particular way, to the bishop of Rome, pastor of the whole Church, when, without arriving at an infallible definition and without pronouncing in a “definitive manner,” they propose in the exercise of the ordinary Magisterium a teaching that leads to better understanding of Revelation in matters of faith and morals. To this ordinary teaching the faithful “are to adhere to it with religious assent” which, though distinct from the assent of faith, is nonetheless an extension of it.” —CCC, 892 That is what makes Peter’s successor’s teaching “authentic” and essentially “Catholic.” Hence, the recent fraternal correction of bishops is not disloyalty or a rejection of the Pope, but a support of his office.
It is not a question of being ‘pro-’ Pope Francis or ‘contra-’ Pope Francis. It is a question of defending the Catholic faith, and that means defending the Office of Peter to which the Pope has succeeded. —Cardinal Raymond Burke, The Catholic World Report, January 22, 2018
So you don’t have to choose sides — choose Sacred Tradition since, ultimately, The Papacy is Not One Pope. What a great tragedy it is for the world looking in when Catholics cause scandal, either by falling into schism, or by promoting a cult of personality around the Pope, rather than Jesus.
Bath Time!
What is the “now word” today? I sense it is the Spirit calling the Church, from top to bottom, to fall on our knees and immerse ourselves again in the Word of God that has been gifted to us in the Holy 
Scriptures. As I wrote in Novum, Our Lord Jesus is preparing for Himself a Bride without spot or blemish. In that same passage in Ephesians, St. Paul tells us how:
Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the Word… (Eph 5:25-26)
Yes, that is the “now word” for today: Let us pick up our bibles, dear brothers and sisters, and let Jesus bathe us in His Word — the Bible in one hand, the Catechism in the other.
As for those flirting with schism, just remember… the only sound you’ll hear if you jump from the Barque of Peter is “splash.” And that is no sanctifying bath!
Related Reading
Read how I almost left the Catholic Church decades ago… Stay and Be Light!
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Footnotes
| ↑1 | And I do in the Holy Eucharist, for Jesus is the ‘Word made flesh’ (John 1:14) |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | see The Fundamental Problem |
| ↑3 | cf. Luke 10:16 and Matt 28:19-20 |
| ↑4 | see The Unfolding Splendor of Truth |
| ↑5 | Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 891 |
| ↑6 | see The Great Fissure |
| ↑7 | POPE BENEDICT XVI, Homily of May 8, 2005; San Diego Union-Tribune |
| ↑8 | Lumen Gentium, n. 25, vatican.va |
| ↑9 | “Divine assistance is also given to the successors of the apostles, teaching in communion with the successor of Peter, and, in a particular way, to the bishop of Rome, pastor of the whole Church, when, without arriving at an infallible definition and without pronouncing in a “definitive manner,” they propose in the exercise of the ordinary Magisterium a teaching that leads to better understanding of Revelation in matters of faith and morals. To this ordinary teaching the faithful “are to adhere to it with religious assent” which, though distinct from the assent of faith, is nonetheless an extension of it.” —CCC, 892 |