The rise of fundamentalist Catholicism – Religion News Service

(RNS) — It is normal and customary to identify Pope Francis’ conservative critics as “traditionalists.” But much of what they say is a far cry from Catholic tradition — not least their criticism of the pope itself.

We need a new way to identify them.

Like their Protestant predecessors, today’s fundamentalist Catholics find themselves embroiled in what they consider a war for the soul of their church. Anti-traditionally, they have combined their new biblicism with (their understanding of) Catholic teaching and discipline into the supreme religious authority, beyond the power of the pope’s teaching authority (magisterium) or church council to change.

Source: The rise of fundamentalist Catholicism – Religion News Service

The author of this piece sounds antagonistic to the group within Catholicism that he wants to label as “fundamentalists.” His understanding of fundamentalism itself is inaccurate (see the article), or perhaps better, it is a bad caricature of the real thing. Nevertheless, this opinion piece gives us insight into some of the divisions within Catholicism.

The whole religious world is in a turmoil, seemingly.

— Don Johnson

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