User:Balaer/Sandbox

Inner strife

Nowadays, Roman Catholicism can be divided into two groups, bluntly calling each other modernists and traditionalists, though there are much more subdivisions and nuanced positions.

Modernism consists of groups ranging from the ordinary pro-choice catholics to liberation theologians and the Nouvelle Théologie. Some famous catholics belonging to this group are Joe Biden (pro-choice catholic), Hans Küng (Nouvelle Théologie) and Gustavo Gutiérrez (the founder of liberation theology). Joseph Ratzinger, the later Pope Benedict XVI, was considered to adhere to the Nouvelle Théologie in his younger years, but he became increasingly conservative. This progressive group tends to be politically progressive as well, though they aren't free of new age pseudo-science despite having abandoned creationism.

Traditionalism consists of groups ranging from catholics who strictly follow Rome (neoconservatives) to the Society of Saint Pius X (FSSPX), which doesn't recognize the second Vatican Council. Most recent popes belong to the first group, naturally. Marcel Lefebvre, the founder of the Society, was excommunicated together with the four bishops he consecrated. The four bishops have had their excommunication lifted. Richard Williamson, one of these bishops, vehemently denies the holocaust, and was expelled from the society after breaking his gag order(s) countless times. Of this group, the neoconservatives follow the Catholic Social Teaching, and are thus politically quite progressive, and accept theistic evolution. Members of FSSPX mostly adhere to absolute monarchism, and are either distributist or conservative. Some of their members, especially in France and Spain, are far-right extremists, praising Vichy France and Francoist Spain. They are most likely to be creationists.

Both groups are prone to forming breakaway groups, especially those who ordain female priests (womenpriests) or denounce the popes as heretics (sedevacantism, referring to the empty papal throne). Of course, in their opinion, the Roman Catholic Church broke away from them.