But don't they then go off to become their own church, and kinda thumb their nose at the Vatican? Anglican, Protestant, Episcopalian... right?

They don't really do that any more. At least, not that I'm aware of, though if there's a Catholic offshoot that also worships the Flying Spaghetti Monster, I'd consider it.

Have there been large splits in the Catholic church like in the SBC splitting off and the recent Episcopalian splinters?

Other than the crackety-crackheads like Mel Gibson's family who feel that the current church is too dominated by the Scary Left and have formed a pre-Vatican II splinter, none that I know of. If a pro-gay-rights, pro-women's-ordination, pro-reproductive-rights splinter group formed I'd wobble badly. And if my parish splintered off, I'd go with them in a heartbeat.

And, er, yes, I realize that in the second sentence above I basically just completely described the Episcopal church in America. It's just...I love my little band of misfits, standing vigil at the gates of San Quentin when there's an execution, stubbornly using the gender-inclusive and neutral language that was recently forbidden, speaking up during the Prayers for the Faithful to ask for the ordination of women, getting arrested every Thanksgiving crossing the line at Fort Benning/SOA, marching on every union picket line in the East Bay, the priest who preached against Prop 8.

That's the altar where Hec and I married each other (I asked the old priest, "Do you still marry people?" and he said, "Well, I stand there while people marry each other"). There's the band of little old ladies who knitted booties for Matilda and bring her Mardi Gras beads and trinkets. There are all these people who are amazing and humbling to know and endlessly kind and a second family. I hate what the bossmen are doing to the bigger church, but I can't imagine life without this family.

Just about every Catholic I've known who has gotten disenchanted with the Church has left it to join another one. The only ones who tend to want to splinter off into their own group and still call themselves "Catholic" are the ultraconservatives, like that French bishop who counts among his adherents Mel Gibson's dad.

that was recently forbidden

Schism! Schism!

There was a sort of splinter Roman Catholic Church in eastern Europe during the Soviet era. Since they had to be underground they weren't so much in touch with the Vatican. In Crazy Polish Roommate's childhood they were the crazy rebel radicals and she still (at least as of a decade ago when I knew her) snorts derisively at the notion that the Catholic Church could be stodgy and mired in tradition or whatever.

Once the iron curtain fell they (and their female priests) were smacked down fo sho. I vaguely recall them letting married priests continue like they do with Anglican clergy who convert.

No idea what they're like now. I know that in parts of South America there are bishops who look the other way at family planning in church clinics and the like.

Antipopes!!

Sorry, that's the first thing I think of after I hear "schism."

Antipopes? Do they cause the destruction of Christianity if they come into contact with Popes?

I totally get that JZ and it is awesome that you feel so connected to the people in your church.

Actually, the one reason I really hope they're right about the whole Jesus son of God thing is to see the epic smackdown he lays on their asses in the afterlife. Except shit - he's all about that forgiveness crap.

I think the Bible is pretty clear about what happens to people who do not minister to orphans and the poor:

Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

For I was hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

Antipopes? Do they cause the destruction of Christianity if they come into contact with Popes?

Yes, and then they go to Avignon! (Okay, only one of them did, but still. [link]