Editor,
It is truly sad that certain Catholics cannot grasp the basic fact that Catholic social teaching is not an ideology. Catholic social teaching is neither “liberal” nor “conservative.” That is why informed Catholics find themselves uneasy and indifferent towards all ideologies. Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh can be just as annoying and off base as Rachel Maddow and Chris Matthews.
What is lacking is a total vision of the Catholic Church’s teaching on justice. Some Catholics are so consumed with the individual’s right to adequate health care that they ignore the Catholic doctrine concerning subsidiarity, and still worse the rights of the unborn which will inevitably be trampled under the current legislation. Some Catholics are so concerned with protecting the rights of immigrants that they forget the right of nations to protect their borders, especially where there is legitimate concern.
Being Catholic in America today is a tall order. Reason illuminated by Christ permits us to be neither unbridled capitalists nor socialists; we find no “glories” in liberalism, yet we are wary of conservatism as well. “Be on guard against the leaven of the Pharisees.”
In America, we have many great models of this careful balance. No one can question Dorothy Day’s commitment to the poor, yet she came to repudiate socialism and many of its lies which liberals in America today have recycled. No one can question the commitment of St. Elizabeth Seton to educating the poor, yet her success had nothing to do with public education and teachers unions. Venerable Father Michael McGivney’s zeal to protect the widow and the orphan was unmatched in American history, yet his success with the Knights of Columbus had nothing to do with government-sponsored social security schemes. Even though the causes championed by these examplary figures were “liberal” in nature, their solutions were quite “conservative,” non-profit private entities curing injustices within the context of divine assistance offered in the sacraments.
Catholic social teaching is not an intellectual system of ideas with one master idea (ideology). To the contrary, it is based on certain truths and facts that are both revealed by God and validated by common sense. The corpus of Catholic social teaching appears as a magnificant stained-glass window with all its parts in proper order reflecting the brilliant light of Christ. Liberalism and conservatism by contrast appear to me to be broken stained-glass windows put back together in their improper order with a few pieces missing by people who thought they knew better. Naturally, there is nothing spectacular to look at there.
Unfortunately, in both world views there is one common, sadly mistaken notion: that somehow man can get along fine in this world if he just adopts this or that philosophy of governance. No need for grace, no need for the guidance offered by the magisterium of the Church, no need for God. No recognition anywhere that injustice is rooted in original sin and that the only cure for this problem is the grace of repentence and conversion offered by Christ.
Joe Saffioti
Glassboro
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