Nothing is more disconcerting to conservative Catholics than the influence of Leftist ideology in the Catholic Church. Pope John Paul II did an admirable job in purging so-called “Liberation Theology” from the Church but, just like cancer, some strands of the disease remain.
Side note – Liberation Theology is an unholy union of the teachings of Jesus Christ and Karl Marx. This perversion of Church teachings crawled out of the swamp of communist Russia’s influence in overwhelmingly-Catholic Latin America during the latter part of the 20th Century. Pope Benedict (then-Cardinal Ratzinger) published a good but somewhat-hard-to-read paper on the phenomenon in the ’80s.
In the United States, Liberation Theology maintains its stranglehold among Catholics mainly in the Democrat Party and the false theology of “Social Justice”. Obama was steeped in the sub-cult of Liberation Theology (Black Liberation Theology) with his spiritual mentors of 20+ years, Jeremiah Wright and his unholy bishop, Catholic priest Mike Pflegler.
Democrat politicians professing to be Catholic predictably vote in favor of legislation that should, in my opinion, at least justify denial of Communion if not outright excommunication since they continue to commit the same sins without repentance. Most clergy tend to just look the other way although occasionally a priest will publicly admonish wayward Catholics:
It is entirely incompatible with Catholic teaching to conclude that our freedom of will justifies choices that are radically contrary to the Gospel—racism, infidelity, abortion, theft. Freedom of will is the capacity to act with moral responsibility; it is not the ability to determine arbitrarily what constitutes moral right.
In the presidential election of 2008 Democrat Catholic politicians publicly wore their faith on their sleeves in support of Obama. Many in the laity bought “hope & change” hook, line and sinker. They’re now realizing they were sold a bill of goods and the Catholic Left is in a panic:
The phrase “social justice,” when invoked by members of the Catholic left, is a euphemism for the agenda of the Democratic Party. “Social justice” refers not to objective principles of justice but to specific policies of Democrats on health care, labor, welfare, and other matters.
This is why the historic November defeat of Democrats was treated as such troubling news in many chanceries and Catholic university faculty lounges. Worried headlines, of the kind that were nowhere to be found in the Catholic left’s publications after the election of Barack Obama, suddenly appeared, such as Catholic San Francisco’s headline, “Social Justice Agenda in Jeopardy in US.”
The Alinsky brigade is worried and rightly so:
The panic was understandable. After all, the Catholic left had invested a great deal in the success of the Democrats and in particular Barack Obama. Many nuns and priests voted for him, with some even openly serving on his “Catholic” campaign advisory committee; Catholic college presidents and faculties generously donated to his campaign (Georgetown, out of all college faculties, ranked second in donations); and Catholic public figures such as Doug Kmiec portrayed him as the very embodiment of the Church’s vision of “change.”
After he won the election, the Catholic left’s excitement grew still more. Notre Dame conferred upon him an honorary degree, and bishops such as Archbishop Michael Sheehan of New Mexico, afraid that criticism of Obama’s policies might make Catholics look like the “Amish,” made rationalizations for him. Kmiec, before departing for his ambassadorship to Malta, burbled victoriously that “President Obama has far more in common with our great faith tradition than any political administration in recent memory.”
Always late to an awareness that its trendy enthusiasms are no longer trendy, the Catholic left simply hadn’t anticipated the wave of anti-Obama feeling that swept over the country in 2010. Particularly galling to members of the Catholic left is that the Catholic vote contributed to the backlash and appears to be slipping away from the Democrats. In 2008, 55 percent of Catholics voted for the Democratic ticket. In 2010, 54 percent of Catholics voted for Republicans.
In addition to pro-abortion “Catholics”, even the Democrats the media portrayed as pro-life (but were willing to compromise) suffered losses:
“Pro-choice” Catholic Democrats suffered heavy losses, as did many of the self-styled “pro-life” Democrats who compromised on Obama’s morally dubious health care bill.
The so-called Stupak Democrats didn’t even gain a single election, let alone the world, from their compromise. By choosing party power over principle, they put themselves into a position to lose both.
“Pro-choice” Democrats tried hard to retain the Catholic vote through the usual claim that the Democratic Party, despite its support for abortion rights and other violations of the natural law, is “better” on the Church’s “social justice concerns” than the Republicans. But this year that “seamless garment” unraveled. Voters were in no mood to hear about “social justice” from Catholic Democrats whose party during its time in power has presided over increasing poverty and unemployment. (Economic woes also made it difficult for Democrats to use the sophistical argument, which Kmiec dusted off in 2008, that Democratic policies reduce the number of abortions by reducing poverty.)
The Catholic left’s shell game appears to have been exposed:
The Catholic left’s monopolistic claims about the “common good” and “social justice” now meet with appropriate skepticism, and its equation of “Catholic concerns” with amnesty, carbon taxes, government-run health care, and so on, is seen as insultingly specious.
Political arguments with a social component (amnesty, global warming, health care, etc.) should be welcome among all, including Catholics. But for Catholics, you cannot support positions, even tacitly, that are so blatantly against Church teachings (abortion, homosexuality, etc.) and expect to be full Communion with your Church.
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