I say it’s a schism because the the world needs to stand united against Islamofascism, not turn on each other in the face of the greatest threat to western civilization we have ever faced. From The Daily Mail:

The Pope has ordered his bishops to set up exorcism squads to tackle the rise of Satanism.

Vatican chiefs are concerned at what they see as an increased interest in the occult.

They have introduced courses for priests to combat what they call the most extreme form of “Godlessness.”

Each bishop is to be told to have in his diocese a number of priests trained to fight demonic possession.

The initiative was revealed by 82-year-old Father Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican “exorcistinchief,” to the online Catholic news service Petrus.

“Thanks be to God, we have a Pope who has decided to fight the Devil head-on,” he said.

“Too many bishops are not taking this seriously and are not delegating their priests in the fight against the Devil. You have to hunt high and low for a properly trained exorcist.

“Thankfully, Benedict XVI believes in the existence and danger of evil – going back to the time he was in charge of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.” The CDF is the oldest Vatican department and was headed by Benedict from 1982, when he was Cardinal Ratzinger, until he became Pope in 2005.

Notice that the Pope is setting up a crusade not against Satan, but Satanism, a distinction no doubt lost on many but important to all of us who may be, shall we say, unorthodox in our religious practice and philosophical pursuits.

Pope Benedict’s formulation of what constitutes Satanism is unlikely to come from some anthropological observations or a study of comparative religion, but will be based (as it should) on Catholic doctrine. It would be the same sort of doctrine a Montague Summers used in writing books like The History of Witchcraft and Demonology or his more readable Witchcraft and Black Magic where all religions aside from Catholicism and a few select non-Catholic Christian faiths are considered at least inspired by the devil if not out right Satanism.

The occult and Satanism to the Pope’s new Inquisition would include everything from Taoism to Hinduism. Wiccans, Asatru and other modern “New Age” religions are all considered Satanic in orthodox Christian, and especially Catholic, theology as are the Afro-Caribbean traditions that are so much a part of urban life in America these days.

In short the Pope has declared philosophical war on a good sized portion of America. These people, who it should be said share the same burdens and danger as Catholics in a world under siege by Islamofascism, are now allies of the Church in the defense of the West and it’s values against the onslaught of Islamism that threatens us all. But the Church, true to form, lashes out at those who are most likely to stand with Catholics in defense of freedom while fallaciously honoring the one real threat to its existence, Islamic Imperialists, with “interfaith” dialogs.

The time for dialog with the Wahabbist driven empires of the middle east is over. The counter jihad movement, already fractured by petty infighting, is dying on the vine and the one organization on earth that fought off the last round of Islamic expansionism is now turning its attentions to helping the Islamofascists (and the leftists who support them) stifle our Constitutionally protected divine right of religious freedom.

I’m not a Satanist myself, nor frankly do I think that most Satanists are anything more than flashy, attention starved atheists. There are a few, however, that I respect, including Peter Gilmore who recently saved the life of an elderly couple, and Satanists do make a good point about the hypocrisy of Wicca, a subject too lengthy to indulge in here. I’m not a Satanist, but according to Church doctrine I might as well be and will be treated as such.

I am not a Catholic basher and I support the right of Catholics to hold as many exorcisms as they want, but no one, not the Pope or the Caliph of the Islamists’ fantasy empire or anyone else, gets to “combat” Americans freedom to chose their own religion. If the Church wants to fight Satan, fine. If they want to deny Americans the right to be Satanists if they so choose, then they’ve joined with the enemy.

Update: Tammy Bruce has similar views (I’m in good company) except on a few points I’m sure. She points out that the Vatican has already denied the story.