Much like the extreme Takfirist fundamentalists in Islam [you aren’t a true muslim unless you x,y,z,] fundamentalist catholics are on a mission to purge moderates from their ranks. While this mode appears popular in times of populist fear, it remains to be seen how long it will last, and how much it will either diminish or enlarge the church. Which do you think most likely? I would say diminish over the long haul.
It’s also highly noteworthy that this follows and parallels the manifesto / screed of separatism written by Paul Weyrich back at the beginning of the decade.
Boiled down to essence the manifesto is:

Drive the wedge, split the [institution, church, school, populace, etc] into separate parts so that we fundamentalist god fearing conservatives will have our own part. If we destroy it, so what? - we can live apart like we want.

Never the twain shall meet. You see the same tactics in practice in the Anglican split funded by another theocratic arch conservative, Howard Ahmanson. You see the same in the purge of the GOP, and the rabid hunt for RINO’s by the teapartiers.

Update: Since this has been frontpaged, here’s an excerpt from the Weyrich manifesto:

Our movement will be entirely destructive, and entirely constructive. We will not try to reform the existing institutions. We only intend to weaken them, and eventually destroy them. We will endeavor to knock our opponents off-balance and unsettle them at every opportunity. All of our constructive energies will be dedicated to the creation of our own institutions.
We will use guerrilla tactics to undermine the legitimacy of the dominant
regime.

Below a snip from Huffington post:

Does this look familiar to anyone who’s observed politics post 2004?

_ In the Archdiocese of Boston, parishioners are dissecting the work of a top adviser to the cardinal for any hint of Marxist influence.

_ Bloggers are combing through campaign finance records to expose staff of Catholic agencies who donate to politicians who support abortion rights.

_ RealCatholicTV.com, working from studios in suburban Detroit, is hunting for “traitorous” nuns, priests or bishops throughout the American church.

“We’re no more engaged in a witch hunt than a doctor excising a cancer is engaged in a witch hunt,” said Michael Voris of RealCatholicTV.com and St. Michael’s Media. “We’re just shining a spotlight on people who are Catholics who do not live the faith.”

Read the rest of the article