Lacrimabili Statu?

The Little Schism is taking shape, based on an acceptance of the infallibility of Papal definitions ex cathedra, but a denial of the authority of anything else, reducing it all to a glorified suggestions box and rejecting as "political", as if that made any difference, of anything that did not fit the pre-existing ideology of the Little Schismatics.

Ex cathedra definitions are extremely rare, and while there are several undisputed examples, there are several more that, while no orthodox Catholic could deny their content, may or may not fall within that specific category. There is no definitive list. How very convenient, to be bound by nothing else. In fact, denial of Papal Infallibility makes far less practical difference than denial of the Ordinary Magisterium, which can also sometimes be infallible, as Pope Saint John Paul II pointed out in relation to the impossibility of the ordination of women. The Ordinary Magisterium is exercised all the time.

In principle, it is usually open to change to some extent and by very clearly delineated means. But that is highly specialised stuff. The Pope assumes that people who read his teaching that, for example, the death penalty was "inadmissible", know the precise meaning of inadmissibility. From the reaction of the Little Schismatics, it is obvious that they do not. Therefore, they should keep their own counsel. And between that and the Iran War, what hills to die on.

Where will they end up? The Society of Saint Pius X? Not if it were faithful to its name. In 1914, one of the last acts of Saint Pius was to decline to bless Austria-Hungary in its war effort, on the grounds that, "I do not bless war, I bless peace." He had previously condemned Italian attempts to cast the Italo-Turkish War as any sort of crusade, and in 1912 his Lacrimabili statu had condemned the mistreatment of the indigenous peoples of South America. His successor, Benedict XV, condemned the War from as soon as he was elected, and on 1 August 1917 he famously dubbed it "the useless slaughter"; he also instituted the International Catholic Day for Migrants and Refugees. And so on.

No, the natural resting place of the Little Schismatics will be those breakaway Anglican formations that attached themselves to things like Unite the Kingdom. Some of those have now acquired Old Catholic Orders. And if that were what made them acceptable to the Little Schismatics, then the irony would be too, too, too delicious.