Catholic Ideas and Catholic Realities by Ross Douthat | Articles | First Things
Intellectually, the equivalent polarization was between Commonweal Catholicism and First Things Catholicism between a more theologically liberal Catholic perspective, which emphasized a seamless garment theory of the Church s social teaching as a reason to support the Democratic party despite its position on abortion, and a more theologically conservative perspective, which found its home in the GOP as that party became more consistently pro-life and found its moment of maximal political influence in the evangelical presidency of George W. Bush.
These intellectual camps had significant differences but also a substantial commonality: They took for granted the harmony between their interpretation of post Vatican II Catholicism and their interpretation of the liberal order. They differed most substantially on whether, after the sexual revolution and the rise of neoliberal economics, the leftward or the rightward sort of liberalism had gone more dramatically astray.
This basic intra-Catholic polarization has not disappeared, and the most prominent Catholic politicians in America today from Biden to Nancy Pelosi to former Attorney General Bill Barr still embody it. But among younger Catholics, in the intelligentsia especially, both syntheses have come under severe strain.
I learned a lot from this article. E.g., I had no idea there even was a “Weird Catholic Twitter” or something called a “LeftCath.” Always be learning, that’s what I say.