What Is Schism, Father?

Because St. Blog's -- where, if your favored brand of toothpaste isn't the fashionable one, you are a heretic schismatic pro-abort demon and are not to present yourself for Communion -- desperately needs a primer on this one (you know, lest the humble faithful be confused and dominated by megalomaniacs), here's a snip from this week's Dear Father column in the St. Louis Review.

The Church distinguishes three specific genres of what it calls the sin of "incredulity" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2089).

Heresy is the obstinate denial by someone baptized of a truth which is to be believed with divine and "catholic" faith, or it may be an obstinate doubt about such a truth.

Apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith.

Schism is the refusal to submit to the authority of the pope or to join in communion with the members of the Catholic Church subject to him.

By this definition, if obstinately ordaining four bishops against the mandate of the Apostolic See -- or building a church for your daddy -- isn't schism, I don't know what is.

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