“It may be that they already have one foot out of the door.”
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It has become common to hear contemporary Catholic writers talking about the current crisis in the Church as if what is at stake is the falsifiability of the Catholic religion.
This betrays a very flawed understanding of Catholic fundamental theology and the nature of divine faith.
In a similar way, some of these people also speak as if the process by which we conclude which is the true Church of Christ is like seeing who has won a tight race. In such an analogy, the Roman Church has won; with the runners up being Byzantine Orthodox, Oriental Orthodoxy, Anglicanism, etc.
Along with this way of speaking comes the implicit (and sometimes explicit) idea that if the winner were to be disqualified (e.g., on grounds of having cheated), then the first runner-up would become the new winner by default.
We saw a recent example of this mentality on social media, with various Catholics listing the top five heretical or schismatic denominations they would embrace, if the Catholic claims were to be falsified.
“Popesplaining” and sins against the Holy Ghost
In the paradigm outlined above, one must be always alive to the possibility of evidence which disproves the claims of the Catholic Church, and be ready to accept them if necessary. The alternative is “intellectual dishonesty” and even rejecting the (supposedly) known truth – a sin against the Holy Ghost.
It is true that one of the primary problems with modern anti-trads and online “popesplainers” is their rejection of the known truth about Francis and the post-conciliar period. The faulty approach discussed in this piece seems to be a reaction to this tendency.
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