Catholic Rift

The **Catholic Rift**, also known as the **Little Schism**, refers to a split within the Catholic Church that began in 2078 between what are now the 'New World' and Roman Catholic Churches.

## Background

Throughout the 21st Century, as multiple societies around the world began to grow more progressive and liberal in attitudes towards matters such as abortion, LGBT+-related issues, and family structures, division began to grow within the Roman Catholic Church over these same issues. Internal elements that held more progressive and more traditional views on the church often diverged on the approach that the Church should take toward these issues, soon taking a distinctly geographic separation. The "Old World" half of the church, that centered in Eurasia and Africa, was largely dominated by traditionalist bishops and church leaders, while the "New World" half centered in North and South America was host to many of the more progressive elements.

### Catholic Doctrines and Social Issues

Throughout its history, the Roman Catholic Church has often positioned itself as a moral authority as well as a spiritual authority, serving as an interpreter of Christian scriptures as they relate to matters of personal and interpersonal morality. This claim to authority slowly began to weaken with the Protestant Reformation, which encouraged the view that all people should be able to interpret the Bible for themselves, but began to grow increasingly weakened in the 20th Century as secular powers began to overtake the Church as an arbiter of morality.

## The Rift Takes Form

### Conflict between Cardinals

By 2050, as the Church debated how to proceed with establishing Ecclesiastical provinces off-world, the debate soon grew into a wider issue of the Church's approach toward wider social issues that dominated in the world, including but not limited to global climate change, LGBT+ equality and rights, abortion access, and reformist efforts throughout the world. As early as the Papal Conclave of 2061 that elevated Pope John Paul III, the College of Cardinals began to coalesce around opposing figures, with the traditionalists being unofficially led by Archbishop Gonçalo of Braga, and the progressives similarly led unofficially by Archbishop Sábio of Rio de Janiero.

### Papal Conclave of 2078

The Rift was made more or less official after the death of John Paul III. During the subsequent Papal Conclave of 2078, the opposing factions in the College of Cardinals naturally supported each other's *de facto* leader, but after seventeen rounds of voting, Archbishop Gonçalo was elected as Pope Stephen XII. During his first public address as Pope, Stephen XII reaffirmed a commitment to traditional interpretations of Biblical stances on same-sex marriage, abortion, and various other issues. In response, Archbishop Sábio resigned from the College of Cardinals in protest and issued the Rio de Janiero Statement, a rebuke of the policies of Stephen XII and the most public criticism of the Papacy by an archbishop in recent years. Many New World dioceses and Bishops took the statement as an unofficial act of secession from the Church, despite there being no formal secession from the Catholic Church.

## Current Status

As of the year 2110, there has not yet been any public or private reconciliation between the New World Dioceses and the Old World Dioceses. Upon the death of Stephen XII in 2102, the new Pope Leo XIV reaffirmed the commitment to traditional interpretations and rebuking Sábio's statements as borderline heretical. Archbishop Sábio has likewise continued to oppose the traditionalist bent of the Vatican even into his old age, and there seems to be no current progress on reconciling the traditionalist and progressive elements of the Church.