Opposition to Francis rooted in opposition to Vatican II

 Opposition to Francis rooted in opposition to Vatican II

The current crop of bishops who oppose the Council long for the Golden Age of American Catholicism. It is the point between acceptance by the right and before the revolution in free thought, which started in New York and Los Angeles, spreading to campuses nationwide. A newly mobile society stopped going to Church for the sake of appearances (not authentic faith). The 1950s were Potemkin Catholicism. 

The renegade bishops were followers of St. John Paul II and his cohort of resistance at the Council. Their manifesto was Veritatis Splendor, which was a clumsy attempt to return to the days of St. Pius X and his predecessor, Pius IX. 

Catholics who refuse to obey Church law on Mass attendance are still Catholic, and there is a core of social justice Vatican II Catholics who follow the pastoral holiness of Pope Francis. There is a core group of Vatican II priests and bishops who kept their heads down during the John Paul era. I went to college with priests of this generation and they are just now becoming pastors. They are the future of the Church. 

The misogyny and anti-sexuality of Golden Age Catholicism is fading away, sooner than later. The real world accepts the truth that Hellenistic sexual ethic in Catholic Magisterial theology was never true and that it is not holy, just different. It is the A in LGBTQIA. There is even a flag for them. They would find peace and freedom if they picked it up and marched with it.