Athanasius was a Bishop, You Know

There’s pattern of give and take I’ve been seeing over and over again in the Catholic blogosphere over the last year. I’m not going to name any names, because it’s a general pattern.

Blogger A says, effectively, “Francis and the bishops are giving away the store. The Church is going to die. Schism might be necessary to preserve the Faith!”

Blogger B responds, “Wait a minute. This is the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. Jesus promised that the Gates of Hell would not prevail against it. Things might get messy for a while, but the Holy Spirit is in charge, and the Pope won’t be able to change Church teaching in a way that would justify schism.”

Blogger A responds, “But there are serious errors being promulgated! We need to stand against them like Athanasius stood against Arianism!”

And at this point I always think, “Dude. Athanasius was a bishop. Handing down and protecting the Deposit of Faith was in his job description. You and me, we’re bloggers.”

Certainly even as laypeople we need to stand up for the truth. But if we set ourselves against the Pope and the bishops as a general thing, then we are in schism already; and if we remain there the Church will leave us behind.