What happened to the liberal Catholic tradition?
CWN – August 21, 2012
Wall Street Journal columnist William McGurn laments the disappearance of a liberal Catholic tradition that posed real challenges to American conservatives.
Today the liberal impulse in American Catholic life has substituted political for religious orthodoxy. In retrospect, the turning point is easy to spot: liberal Catholicism’s acquiescence in the Democratic Party’s drift toward supporting abortion at a time when church leaders had the influence to stop it.
Substituting political orthodoxy for fundamental principles of Catholic teaching, McGurn argues, the religious left has taken its stand on issues that involve prudential judgments, outside the scope of authoritative Church teaching—while ignoring what the Church says on clear moral questions. “And while they believe that the pope and bishops have nothing of value to offer about the sanctity of marriage or the duty of protecting unborn life, when it comes to federal spending, suddenly a miter means infallibility.”
Additional sources for this story: Social Justice and Ryan the Heretic (Wall Street Journal) online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443989204577601273551443082.html