Here is what's really going on in the conflict within the Church. Modernists ignore the dogmas of the Catholic faith--and take real issue with them. This is why they push the Novus Ordo and despise the Tridentine Mass which emphasizes the dogmas of Transubstantiation and Propitiatory sacrifice. They have suppressed the Marian dogmas and feel no qualms about questioning the Gospel miracles or even the Resurrection of Jesus. Some even question the Incarnation and the divinity of Christ.
But there is no wish by modernists to oppose any of these dogmas openly and directly. To do so would not only lead to a mass exodus from the Church, but it would weaken the dogmatic underpinnings of their own clerical authority. In addition such an honest and open approach would destroy the only distinction left between Catholics and Protestants--which is the rigid hierarchical structure of the Catholic Church and the intense adherence of faithful Catholics to the pope who is at the apex of the hierarchic pyramid.
Rather than pursue a doctrinal confrontation, therefore, Modernists choose to create facts on the ground by subterfuge and deception. They have successfully destroyed traditional catechesis, substituting social programs instead; they have substituted a protestantizing liturgy for the ancient Mass and have made it the primary vehicle for spreading the new theology; they have changed the office of the priesthood by emphasizing the priesthood of all the baptized; and they have aggressively pursued an exaggerated ecumenicism which is indifferentist and syncretist in nature, pushing for a "civilization of love" in lieu of a union based on commonly held beliefs.
Sooner or later the New Theology must fail. Why? Because it cannot keep the faithful in line once the dogmatic underpinnings of tradition have been eliminated. With tradition goes also any impetus by the faithful to obey the hierarchy. If Catholics no longer must believe in the Real Presence, then sure as God made green apples they likewise will feel no obligation to obey their bishops or pope. Doing away with the one while trying to keep their own authority intact would be like the bishops' trying to square a circle--it can't be done.
BTTT
I'm saving this post in a Word.doc because it rings so true. Thanks.
I agree, but they can really still drag the process out, can't they? In other words, who knows how long the timeline will be, and if it's too long the faithful become stupefied and befogged to the point of inaction, and that's taking into consideration that the faithful are cognizant of what it really means to be Catholic and want to abide by that, which is not a given.
What they have to do, which is tricky, is perpetually spin what are obvious contradictions of previously taught truths into 'we didn't fullly understand before', 'sorry we told you it was a sin...', 'let's move on.'
Thus far, they've been successful with that strategy.