Counterfeit Catholicism, Left and Right – WSJ

Though Catholicism has never been a political system, the faithful have always existed in the political sphere. The Catholic tradition thus includes a deep vein of thinking about political institutions and practices, from early thinkers such as St. Augustine (354-430) to medieval ones such as St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-74), whose work incorporated Aristotelian political philosophy into Christian thought. This intellectual tradition continued to develop into early modernity and was rekindled by the Thomistic revival of Pope Leo XIII (1810-1903) and the development of modern Catholic social teaching.

That tradition, however, is now rarely consulted. Instead, in a misguided attempt to reconcile Catholicism with modernity, many American Catholics have begun to embrace progressive ideologies that Archbishop José Gómez of Los Angeles calls profoundly atheistic. From critical race theory to gender ideology, these ideas deny the soul the spiritual, transcendent dimension of human nature; or they think that it is irrelevant to human happiness, Archbishop Gómez has said. Some Catholics perhaps inspired by dissident Catholic politicians even promote abortion.

But they aren t the only ones departing from church teaching. A prominent group of Catholics on the political right who go by the name of integralists, common-good constitutionalists or postliberals is another. Their central contention is that contemporary American culture is actively corrosive to Catholic teaching, practice and virtue. Some even reject our nation s founding principles. In practice, they take advantage of widespread economic anxiety to play up the valuable tradition of Catholic critiques of market-worship, while ignoring Catholic teaching on exchange, the danger of socialism and the importance of subsidiarity. Such thinkers want our laws to reflect their own controversial understanding of Catholic teaching, which apparently seeks to create a powerful state that superintends people s lives.

These versions of Catholic thinking are clumsy counterfeits of a dazzling Catholic intellectual tradition. What s more, they threaten the unity of the Catholic Church and the cohesion of our country. In the absence of an alternative, generations of Catholics could be led astray.

via www.wsj.com

Neither Left nor Right. Sounds promising.