Vatican cracks down on a traditionalist group by excommunicating its bishops

[31j20b3]

21. Yes, especially in a case like this wherein a handful out of thousands of priests

is treated as an existential threat to catholic power.

It seems rath more like protection of the control of power

Imagine the pushback if ending indulgences were involved. Oh, wait. That happened. The catholic church survived a process that birthed a huge competing chuch all that was lost was sole authority to proclaim sole source authority

And don't forget there was also the Inquisition. They had to lock-up Galileo because, they needed to enforce a well outdated Earth centrism

One guy and his telescope against the Catholic church. The Church lost that and yet survived, brecause survuval of the Church didn't depend on knowledge of celestial mechanics and even built it's own observatory in Rome.