@AWanderingSorcerer@urusai.social outsider; but I feel like a fear of this is part of why they broke the taboo by electing an American pope - to guard against something like this. The American Catholic Church is in an interesting place. They fall into many of the same positions of the evangelicals, and occupy many of the same information spheres. It’s kinda natural for them to fall into the orbit of what is “Christian” created by a largely Protestant country. But suspicion of Catholics is deep into the DNA of American conservatism, especially its radical elements. I doubt they will ever be fully let “in”, at least not without a significant break with Rome. From the outside it looks like there is a war for the soul of American Catholicism. I hope they break from the influences of the evangelical right, and find their own path. But American Christianity is nothing but a disappointment to me. I expect this to come to a head eventually. I think the chance of an antipope is extremely slim. But demographics of the church could easily flee.
A
