Well argued and beautifully written. Catholics need to do a much better job combating all of this “Conservative Catholic” nonsense, which, as you’ve detailed so well, isn’t Catholic or Christian. I get that Evangelicals, who at their foundation have a completely distorted view of Jesus, think political dominance is the goal. But Catholics have clear teachings and clear social theory fully in-step with the Gospels. Love, humility, and sacrifice, not power, aggression, and wealth.
They didn't cross for the Pope's authority. They crossed for power over others in order to effect change. This is what is offered to Jesus in the desert; worship power over others, meaning the power of coercion, meaning the employment of violence, which Jesus rejected.
I grew up very Catholic as my father qas the St. Anselms music director for several years. I knew the priests, mu Aunt was a Nun in Youngstown Ohio, and participated in Mass every Sunda. After a interval of questioning and abandoning the Church, my wife and I returned after adopting a son in Peru. Then again stopped going to celebrate the mass. I became a contemplative christian quite by accident through study, then prayer and meditation. Pope Francis inspires me as does Pope Leo. I want to return, but I am hesitant due to what I am reading recently. If the Church is being infected with MAGA and Catholics become a driving force in the movement, count me out. I will worship peacefully and humbly in my own private confines and be charitable and kind to all I come in contact with.
There are those who believe the Ten Commandments are the morality of the Christian disciple. Jesus taught the beatitudes. Imagine going down the constricted road with the narrow gate that Jesus spoke of in the sermon on the mount. The Ten Commandments are the constriction in the road. But, the Beatitudes are on the line in the center of the road which goes through the narrow gate. Being merciful and a peacemaker is two of the beatitudes. The Ten Commandments that apply as constriction to these Beatitudes are; Thou shall not kill, and Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor. These commandments are where you know you've gone too far away from the beatitudes to get through the gate. The two commandments that Jesus gave of loving God and loving your neighbor are the center of Christian morality, not the laws of Moses.
I’m so grateful to see someone point out the contradiction between Chesterton’s fanboys and Chesterton’s own convictions. Chesterton wrote against anti-homeless laws! He wrote against millionaires! His belief in private property wasn’t that ownership is inviolable, it basically came down to the belief that as many people as possible should have property! But somehow he’s become known in America for these silly and shamelessly contextless aphorisms. It’s maddening.
I really appreciated this! I’ve spent my life on the boundary between the Anglican Church and the Catholic Church, and only realized recently that I relate more to Catholicism. But I’m also really clear that modern politics don’t fit the faith neatly, and that’s proper.
My father’s father was Anglican, an old-time labour unionist from Northern England, my father’s mother was Catholic, similar background, and 19th century labour union members were not like modern Democrats or left-wing Canadian politicians. Still, it’s a lot easier to find the Gospels on the left, generally, than in anything influenced by the Epstein Class. I don’t remember politics being as divided when I was young as they are now.
I was married to an Anglican priest who was as left-leaning as I am. Again, his politics and religious views were a family legacy, that if your parents or grandparents worked in the mine or the smelter, and lived in a company town where even the grocery stores were owned by the company, it was standard that everyone looked out for their neighbours. Didn’t matter where they came from, which church they went to or what accent they had, if there was tragedy or hardship, the neighbourhood pulled together.
I’m not going to tell someone they’re wrong for being conservative, but if they think helping the poor, immigrants, the elderly, the sick, is not explicitly in both Testaments, I have a hard time with that.
I think you go too far when you judge J D Vance’s motivations for crossing the Tiber as an example of the libido dominandi. However, I also think that Vance, a zealous young convert, went too far in openly criticizing his spiritual Father, Pope Francis, when he advised him to reflect on the parable of the Good Samaritan. Charity may indeed begin at home (ordo amoris) but it doesn’t stop there. As for the so-called “Barron Doctrine”, a case can be mounted for arguing that duly elected government (Caesar) has the final call in deciding how to deal with temporal issues after taking counsel from the source of wisdom (God).
To love God is to be obedient to God to hear the words “ Welcome my good and faithful servant”. God created all men in the desire, wooing all men to come unto Him by picking up their cross to grow in His likeness in accordance with the Way, the Life and the (objective) Truth to fulfill our potential actualized by aspiring to be declared an adopted child of God’s particular love.
Authority is simply the “will to power”, Absolute Authority to create & define good thus the privation of the good as evil is the domain of the Absolute Authority of God who is all Good.
The temporal authority of the Pope declared as the Vicar of God is grounded in the overlap between the City of Man and the City of God to live in the world not of the world leading the flock of all men to the City of God and eternal life as God desires for all men knowing some, lamenting that all too many shall chose otherwise planting themselves in the City of Man on this side of the grave now and forever. May God have mercy on their souls.
The issue of Vatican I declaring the Pope to be the Vicar of Christ an authority on dogmatic issue is restricted to perpetuating the Objective Truth as it applies to sustaining the Life and the Way of Jesus Christ in accordance with the will of the Father (not my will but the will of the Father (the moral Authority even for Jesus Christ). No more than Jesus could not call evil, good or good, evil nor can or should the Pope call evil, good nor good, evil.
The catholic Church is simply the means to the end to fulfill God’s desire that all men are wooed to love God. The Catholic Church seems to have embraced the Vatican I “will to power” in the temporal, assuming the Absolute Power of God, our Highest Moral Authority having one ear tuned to hearing the modernisms words “Did He really say that?” while tuning out the words of Jesus Christ “not my will but the will of the Father”.
St Thomas Aquinas taught that our greatest kindness is to share the Truth which to address modern ears, would (IMHO) require the Truth, the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth to the rejection of modernism’s subjective truthiness to taste the forbidden fruit.
Given that with God’s gift of free will each must discern the path to choose that leads to God and particular salvation of each hence each must choose wisely, then ever more wisely aligned with the classic teaching of progressive sanctification towards our adoption to hear the words “welcome my good and faithful servant”.
Being dense, I am unclear as to the definition of obedience in this piece; it seems to function differently in different ways, and at times seems at variance with Newman. To stay with a community while disagreeing seems perhaps what you are aiming at?
Well argued and beautifully written. Catholics need to do a much better job combating all of this “Conservative Catholic” nonsense, which, as you’ve detailed so well, isn’t Catholic or Christian. I get that Evangelicals, who at their foundation have a completely distorted view of Jesus, think political dominance is the goal. But Catholics have clear teachings and clear social theory fully in-step with the Gospels. Love, humility, and sacrifice, not power, aggression, and wealth.
They didn't cross for the Pope's authority. They crossed for power over others in order to effect change. This is what is offered to Jesus in the desert; worship power over others, meaning the power of coercion, meaning the employment of violence, which Jesus rejected.
I grew up very Catholic as my father qas the St. Anselms music director for several years. I knew the priests, mu Aunt was a Nun in Youngstown Ohio, and participated in Mass every Sunda. After a interval of questioning and abandoning the Church, my wife and I returned after adopting a son in Peru. Then again stopped going to celebrate the mass. I became a contemplative christian quite by accident through study, then prayer and meditation. Pope Francis inspires me as does Pope Leo. I want to return, but I am hesitant due to what I am reading recently. If the Church is being infected with MAGA and Catholics become a driving force in the movement, count me out. I will worship peacefully and humbly in my own private confines and be charitable and kind to all I come in contact with.
There are lots of very liberal Catholics. The MAGA Catholics only exist in the US, and even then, they’re not the majority.
You're probably right. Maybe I follow the events to closely and overthink. It is hard not to in this hyper media enviroment. Peace now!
A very well written and well thought through essay. Thank you for sharing it.
There are those who believe the Ten Commandments are the morality of the Christian disciple. Jesus taught the beatitudes. Imagine going down the constricted road with the narrow gate that Jesus spoke of in the sermon on the mount. The Ten Commandments are the constriction in the road. But, the Beatitudes are on the line in the center of the road which goes through the narrow gate. Being merciful and a peacemaker is two of the beatitudes. The Ten Commandments that apply as constriction to these Beatitudes are; Thou shall not kill, and Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor. These commandments are where you know you've gone too far away from the beatitudes to get through the gate. The two commandments that Jesus gave of loving God and loving your neighbor are the center of Christian morality, not the laws of Moses.
I’m so grateful to see someone point out the contradiction between Chesterton’s fanboys and Chesterton’s own convictions. Chesterton wrote against anti-homeless laws! He wrote against millionaires! His belief in private property wasn’t that ownership is inviolable, it basically came down to the belief that as many people as possible should have property! But somehow he’s become known in America for these silly and shamelessly contextless aphorisms. It’s maddening.
I really appreciated this! I’ve spent my life on the boundary between the Anglican Church and the Catholic Church, and only realized recently that I relate more to Catholicism. But I’m also really clear that modern politics don’t fit the faith neatly, and that’s proper.
My father’s father was Anglican, an old-time labour unionist from Northern England, my father’s mother was Catholic, similar background, and 19th century labour union members were not like modern Democrats or left-wing Canadian politicians. Still, it’s a lot easier to find the Gospels on the left, generally, than in anything influenced by the Epstein Class. I don’t remember politics being as divided when I was young as they are now.
I was married to an Anglican priest who was as left-leaning as I am. Again, his politics and religious views were a family legacy, that if your parents or grandparents worked in the mine or the smelter, and lived in a company town where even the grocery stores were owned by the company, it was standard that everyone looked out for their neighbours. Didn’t matter where they came from, which church they went to or what accent they had, if there was tragedy or hardship, the neighbourhood pulled together.
I’m not going to tell someone they’re wrong for being conservative, but if they think helping the poor, immigrants, the elderly, the sick, is not explicitly in both Testaments, I have a hard time with that.
A very excellent essay. Thank you.
Thank you! This is well argued and written. Extremely helpful!
I think you go too far when you judge J D Vance’s motivations for crossing the Tiber as an example of the libido dominandi. However, I also think that Vance, a zealous young convert, went too far in openly criticizing his spiritual Father, Pope Francis, when he advised him to reflect on the parable of the Good Samaritan. Charity may indeed begin at home (ordo amoris) but it doesn’t stop there. As for the so-called “Barron Doctrine”, a case can be mounted for arguing that duly elected government (Caesar) has the final call in deciding how to deal with temporal issues after taking counsel from the source of wisdom (God).
To love God is to be obedient to God to hear the words “ Welcome my good and faithful servant”. God created all men in the desire, wooing all men to come unto Him by picking up their cross to grow in His likeness in accordance with the Way, the Life and the (objective) Truth to fulfill our potential actualized by aspiring to be declared an adopted child of God’s particular love.
Authority is simply the “will to power”, Absolute Authority to create & define good thus the privation of the good as evil is the domain of the Absolute Authority of God who is all Good.
The temporal authority of the Pope declared as the Vicar of God is grounded in the overlap between the City of Man and the City of God to live in the world not of the world leading the flock of all men to the City of God and eternal life as God desires for all men knowing some, lamenting that all too many shall chose otherwise planting themselves in the City of Man on this side of the grave now and forever. May God have mercy on their souls.
The issue of Vatican I declaring the Pope to be the Vicar of Christ an authority on dogmatic issue is restricted to perpetuating the Objective Truth as it applies to sustaining the Life and the Way of Jesus Christ in accordance with the will of the Father (not my will but the will of the Father (the moral Authority even for Jesus Christ). No more than Jesus could not call evil, good or good, evil nor can or should the Pope call evil, good nor good, evil.
The catholic Church is simply the means to the end to fulfill God’s desire that all men are wooed to love God. The Catholic Church seems to have embraced the Vatican I “will to power” in the temporal, assuming the Absolute Power of God, our Highest Moral Authority having one ear tuned to hearing the modernisms words “Did He really say that?” while tuning out the words of Jesus Christ “not my will but the will of the Father”.
St Thomas Aquinas taught that our greatest kindness is to share the Truth which to address modern ears, would (IMHO) require the Truth, the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth to the rejection of modernism’s subjective truthiness to taste the forbidden fruit.
Given that with God’s gift of free will each must discern the path to choose that leads to God and particular salvation of each hence each must choose wisely, then ever more wisely aligned with the classic teaching of progressive sanctification towards our adoption to hear the words “welcome my good and faithful servant”.
Being dense, I am unclear as to the definition of obedience in this piece; it seems to function differently in different ways, and at times seems at variance with Newman. To stay with a community while disagreeing seems perhaps what you are aiming at?