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To: redgolum; Hermann the Cherusker

Choosing one parish over another, or one rite over another, is no schism. Not even informal schism.

A church is Catholic if a licitly ordained priest consecrates a valid Eucharist in it and the rubrics of the appropriate rite are followed. That is all. Larger towns have several Eastern Catholic rites as well as the Latin rite. People drive to the mass of their chosen rite. If it is too far, they go to the mass they can get to, and go to the preferred rite on holidays, or when an occasion presents itself. Novus ordo is just one more rite. These are all normal Catholic behavior. No schism.

If a Catholic chooses a geographically remote parish of the same rite, it is a bit problematic, but it does not constitute a schism. It is a mild insubordination at the most, particularly if the reasons are better conformance at the farther parish. Remember, people belong to the Catholic Church as a whole, they do not belong to a rite. They register at a parish for reasons of fundraising mostly. Hermann may wish to correct me if I am wrong on this score.

The current situation is abnormal, because the indult is not universal. So SSPX ordained illicit priests and that is a schism. The universal indult will heal that, because Tridentine and Novus Ordo will coexist as equally accessible in principle rites, just like the situation with the Eastern rites. Of course, some schismatic SSPX members wil probably stay in schism for reasons other than the rite, e.g. sedevacantism or opposition to ecumenism. But these will be few.


17 posted on 09/30/2005 1:24:50 PM PDT by annalex
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To: annalex
Perhaps I wasn't enough. Let me explain.

If I was to wander to each parish off the street with out looking at the billboard, I would have a hard time believing they were the same denomination. One has kneeler's and a crucifix, the other doesn't even have a permanent cross near the altar. One at least makes an attempt at looking like a RCC church, the other I honestly thought we had wandered into the Presbyterian church across the street (and my apologies to the Presbyterians.)

My LCMS church looks more Roman Catholic than that! We have kneeler's, crucifixes, and don't decorate the church in pastels! If you compare this to the churches (LCMS and RCC) from where we met (Lincoln NE), I just have to wonder how much unity the various Catholic diocese's have between each other, never mind Rome.
20 posted on 09/30/2005 1:57:10 PM PDT by redgolum ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" -- God.)
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