For years now, the Catholic Church has been defined as much by sex-abuse scandals as by worldwide charities. But simmering conflicts between abdicated Pope Benedict XVI and reigning Pope Francis – on issues like married priests, same-sex marriages, and even pedophile priests – threaten a holy schism that would make those scandals and charities seem irrelevant.

After all, sectarian tensions between Benedict’s conservative and Francis’s liberal acolytes could blow the Catholic Church asunder.