Reply #20: Not all Catholics are members of the Roman Catholic Church...

[Cleobulus]

You seem to be confused here, for example, there's a Church in my area that, just recently, broke with the Archdiocese and with the Vatican. They did a few things the RCC thought were unforgivable sins, the first is refusing to turn over control of the Church's assets to the Archdiocese, second, when the Archdiocese pulled the clergy from the parish, the parish appointed two women to fill the space for a little over a year, that was a big no no. Then the parish invited an open and affirming priest from a different archdiocese that was in formal schism with the RCC. Most of the board of directors of the parish were excommunicated by the Archdiocese, along with the priest and others. The church in question now operates independently from the Vatican and the Archdiocese, and yet still calls itself a Catholic Parish.