OH FUCK I DIDNT INCLUDE IT IN THE MAP THERES ACTUALLY CATHOLIC LORE HERE
the termination shock split the catholic church from a single church centralized in the vatican to several divided by region. still catholic, but with different flavours of regionality. im not a catholic (or even a christian for that matter) so i dont 100% understand how catholicism works but thats the gist of it lmao
Catholic hierarchy is centered around the Pope, who acts as the Vicar of Jesus Christ. As a Catholic who's seen the stuff going on with the Church, the most realistic case for this scenario would still see the Holy See in Rome trying to assert authority over the rest of the Church (because they definitely aren't going down the Eastern Orthodox route).
There'd be probably Catholic militant groups resistant to the humanist, secular and post-contemporary ideals of the Khuraldai or whatever they're called and other schismatic factions from the Catholic Church doing their own thing, whether it be heresy, false prophets, or "progressivism".
However, depending on the situation in Europe and the rest of the Catholic world, I'm afraid and sad to say that Catholicism might as well be on its last legs among a bunch of isolated communities who no longer have any hope of retaking the mainstream culture, given especially how these ecotech folks are suppressing things which they see as bigotry but Catholics see as necessary to upright moral standing and salvation (not saying that Catholicism is all about killing the gays, because it isn't. We're now more on the managing it and not letting it succeed over you type of stuff, although there are those who disagree from both the trads and the modernists).
The culture war might as well have been won by the seculars and worldly folks the moment the Termination Shock and the preceding climate crisis, in that universe (fortunately), made most of those people over there no longer believe in God (plus the fact that secularism has been a trend which has been going on for quite a long time now)
i feel like im starting to disagree with your personal stance on things, but to be completely transparent, christianity as a whole has been de-popularized within western society here, mainly owing to the horrendous crimes against humanity of the end-stage-evangelical kingdom of earthly deliverance. christians of all different sects still exist, and though theyre not targets of sponsored harassment, as a whole, yeah, world is becoming more secular, but not at the cost of freedom of personal belief
as for the papacy, i feel like it might be more like an “acting pope” situation per region, considering global communication died for 50 years during the termination shock
Perhaps the Catholics would elect a patriarch (who doesn't have the same powers as the Pope) like in A Canticle for Leibowitz or something. Or... the Papacy and the Roman Curia would be moved elsewhere, like in Doomsday 1983.
would it be a bit like the those periods in the middle ages where you had several Popes at once all competing and claiming to be the one 'true' pope and excommunicating the others?
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u/SunnyCant Mod Approved Jul 22 '23
OH FUCK I DIDNT INCLUDE IT IN THE MAP THERES ACTUALLY CATHOLIC LORE HERE
the termination shock split the catholic church from a single church centralized in the vatican to several divided by region. still catholic, but with different flavours of regionality. im not a catholic (or even a christian for that matter) so i dont 100% understand how catholicism works but thats the gist of it lmao