Is It Time to Quit the Roman Catholic Church -- or to Join?
That it is high time to quit is the claim of an advertisement that appeared on p. A5 in last Tuesday’s Washington Post. An earlier missive along the same lines appeared in The New York Times on 9 March, and I will have to say that I heartily welcome the attacks mounted by the Freedom from Religion Foundation of Madison, Wisconsin—for they are designed to force the lukewarm to ponder what they really think, get off the fence, and take a stand. In this regard, they are doing for the Catholic Church in the United States what the hierarchy has shied away from doing for almost a half century.
“It’s your moment of truth,” the advertisement begins. “It’s time to quit the Roman Catholic Church. Will it be reproductive freedom, or back to the Dark Ages? Do you choose women and their rights, or Bishops and their wrongs: Whose side are you on? In light of the U. S. Catholic Conference of Bishops’ war against women’s right to contraception. . ."
- Why are you aiding and abetting a church that has repeatedly engaged in a crusade to ban contraception, abortion and sterilization, to deny the right of all women everywhere, Catholic or not, to decide whether and when to become mothers?
- Think of the acute misery, poverty, needless suffering, unwanted pregnancies, overpopulation, social evils and deaths that can be laid directly at the door of your church’s pernicious doctrine that birth control is a sin and must be outlawed.
- If you think you can change the church from within – get it to lighten up on birth control, gay rights, marriage equality, embryonic stem-cell research – you’re deluding yourself. By remaining a “good Catholic,” you are doing “bad” to women’s rights. You are an enabler. And it’s got to stop.
- It’s a disgrace that U. S. health care reform is being held hostage to your church’s irrational opposition to medically prescribed contraception. No political candidate should have to genuflect before the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. President Obama has compromised, but the Church never budges. Instead it is launching a ruthless political Inquisition in your name.
- Your church hysterically claims that secular medical policy is “an assault against religious liberty.” The louder the Church cries "offense against religious liberty” the hard it works to take away women’s liberty. Now your church has introduced into Congress a double-speak bill, the “Respect for Rights of Conscience Act,” to allow dogma to trump the civil rights and private consciences of employees.
- The Church that hasn’t persuaded you to shun contraception now wants to use the forces of secular law to deny birth control to non-Catholics.
- You’re no better than your church, so why stay? Why put up with an institution that discriminates against half of humanity? Why send your children to parochial schools to be indoctrinated into the next generation of obedient donors and voters? Can’t you see how misplaced your loyalty is after two decades of sex scandals involving preying priests, church complicity, collusion and coverup going all the way to the top? Apparently, you’re like the battered woman who, after being beaten down every Sunday, feels she has no place else to go. There is a more welcoming home for you.
I realize that this reads like a parody of left-liberal feminist thought. I realize that it is full of misinformation, hysteria, and hyperbole. I promise you, however, that it is the real thing, and I am delighted to be able to report that the archdiocese of Washington in My Catholic Standard published on Friday a fierce response, which was circulated to everyone in the pews yesterday.
Thanks to Barack Obama, who is for conservatives a gift that keeps on giving, the liberals are doffing the genial mask they donned in the days of Bill Clinton and revealing themselves as what they are. And, instead of seeking to subvert Roman Catholicism from within in the manner of Mario Cuomo and Ted Kennedy, as they have been doing with great success for half a century, they are attacking it head on, forcing the American church to return to its fundamental principles, and inducing non-members sympathetic to its understanding of human sexuality to think about joining.
Those who call themselves Catholics must, indeed, make a choice. They must choose between the worldview that underpins this advertisement and the Catholic faith. It is a choice that the hierarchy should have pressed on them long ago. What a strange and awful world we live in! One in which the professed enemies of Roman Catholicism are unwittingly its firmest and most reliable friends. But, then again, you could say precisely the same thing about the Republican Party. Adversity can be a tonic.
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Comments:
Feb '12
Re: Is It Time to Quit the Roman Catholic Church -- or to Join?
The liberal Catholics would do well to remember the instructions to the church in Laodicea:
(I will never forget this passage. At the Baptist school I went to, the band professor had left his coffee uncovered during chapel, the previous class. Class started; he took a swig and spit it back out. He then quoted the sixteenth verse. You might say it made an impression.)
May '11
Re: Is It Time to Quit the Roman Catholic Church -- or to Join?
Yes, you should quit the Catholic church, of course you should. But the reason is that there is no god, not that they have some semblance of morality.
If you want to quit the church, then do so. But this is not the reason for doing so.
Nov '10
Re: Is It Time to Quit the Roman Catholic Church -- or to Join?
This reminds me of something our pastor said during his semi-annual message on tithing. The issue at hand was that the church was growing to the point of bursting. I believe his exact words were "If you aren't giving because you can't, fine. But if you aren't giving because you won't, then we need your chair, and we need your spot in the parking lot."
I am reminded of this because he was saying the same thing the FFRF are saying: make a decision. I welcome the attacks as well. The nominal Christians take up space and don't do anything to advance the Kingdom. I'd prefer they were in the church and doing the good work. Failing that I'd prefer them on the outside. I think I am in good company there, God said the same thing, Rev. 3:14-15.
May '11
Re: Is It Time to Quit the Roman Catholic Church -- or to Join?
Does this mean that we must accept a smaller church, in exchange for a more authentic one? Ill take that.
May '10
Re: Is It Time to Quit the Roman Catholic Church -- or to Join?
When he was Cardinal Ratzinger, the Pope predicted all of this. The Church would "become smaller".
May '10
Re: Is It Time to Quit the Roman Catholic Church -- or to Join?
I got the quote (thanks to a link by a Facebook friend) here. It comes from Ratzinger's book, Faith and the Future.
Jan '11
Re: Is It Time to Quit the Roman Catholic Church -- or to Join?
It isn't going over so well with liberal Catholics, either. Check out EJ Dionne's response.
The headliners for the FFRF Honorary Board of distinguished achievers are ... Ron Reagan, Jr., Julia Sweeney, Janeane Garofalo, and ... and ... no, stop laughing ...
Jan '11
Re: Is It Time to Quit the Roman Catholic Church -- or to Join?
Golly, what a cranky bunch. Why would I want to give up the Eucharist and join them?
May '12
Re: Is It Time to Quit the Roman Catholic Church -- or to Join?
Thanks for sharing the ad. Your note is a perfect response.
Those that are bent on furthering the progressive agenda are performing admirably. The question is now what are we going to do about standing up for the truth.
Whether it is FFRF or President Obama, they are peforming exactly to their priorities and standards. The question is what is the agenda the rest of us are standing up for. Merely saying liberal/progressive/President Obama isn't good doesn't change a thing and I don't think will change who is in the White House. We must be proactive to explain what the better alternative is.
Dec '10
Re: Is It Time to Quit the Roman Catholic Church -- or to Join?
Ug, these people are currently suing my home town to get rid of a WW I memorial with the dreaded "G" word on it.
http://news.providencejournal.com/breaking-news/2012/05/woonsocket-brac.html
Apparently this is what they do. they go to cash strapped towns with hundred year old memorials and threaten to bankrupt them so they hand over a cash settlement. Nice little cash cow...
Jan '11
Re: Is It Time to Quit the Roman Catholic Church -- or to Join?
Again, this just annoys me:
This argument only makes sense if you also assume that controlling birth is something you can only do ... after sex. Apparently, to these people, having sex is just assumed to be a constant, unstoppable, uncontrollable phenomenon that just sort of happens ... like spontaneous combustion ... and you can't do anything about it.
Restrain your sexual behavior in the first place? Are you serious?
Well, yes, we are serious.
Dec '10
Re: Is It Time to Quit the Roman Catholic Church -- or to Join?
I'm with you, Prof. Rahe. With enemies like this, who needs bishops to do their job? I kid, of course. But, do you suppose it would be a sin to contribute to the FFRF's advertising campaign?
Actually, I'm not sure this will be as effective as we would hope in getting liberal Catholics to reconsider their beliefs. The ones I know are not lukewarm exactly. They're very involved in social justice ministries, in the local peace commissions, in "catechizing" the youth (scary), in prison ministries, in the charismatic prayer group, and some even in the deaconate. They're well past their "I wish I knew how to quit you" moment. Some might say they've reconciled with their internal conflict by staying busy. I see it more as a spiritual battle they don't even know they're losing.
Feb '12
Re: Is It Time to Quit the Roman Catholic Church -- or to Join?
Such an ad would also be appropriately addressed to members of the liberal mainline Congregational, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, and Lutheran denominations, who persist,despite their own mainstream opinions, in supporting leftwing church leaders of dubious piety.
Dec '10
Re: Is It Time to Quit the Roman Catholic Church -- or to Join?
KC Mulville: It isn't going over so well with liberal Catholics, either. Check out EJ Dionne's response.
...
Thanks for the link, KC. I recommend it to everyone.
Dionne's response perfectly exemplifies liberal sentiments... "see, the Church has liberal nuns! And the nuns talk social justice more than abortion! And a lot of good charitable work has been done by liberal nuns! Therefore, we liberals can't abandon the Church to those "conservative" Catholics."
I really don't want liberals to leave the Church. I want them to become more "orthodox," not more "conservative."
Mar '11
Re: Is It Time to Quit the Roman Catholic Church -- or to Join?
I'm not a member, myself, but there is an obvious conflict between being a Catholic and being a Socialist, er, I mean, Liberal.
To be consistent, Liberals like Ms Pelosi et al. should leave, yes - but of course they will not.
Edited on May 14, 2012 at 7:58pmRe: Is It Time to Quit the Roman Catholic Church -- or to Join?
katievs: Cardinal Ratzinger . . . predicted all of this:
60 minutes ago
Wonderful, simply wonderful.
Re: Is It Time to Quit the Roman Catholic Church -- or to Join?
Authentic churches tend to grow.
Re: Is It Time to Quit the Roman Catholic Church -- or to Join?
KC Mulville: It isn't going over so well with liberal Catholics, either. Check out EJ Dionne's response.
The headliners for the FFRF Honorary Board of distinguished achievers are ... Ron Reagan, Jr., Julia Sweeney, Janeane Garofalo, and ... and ... no, stop laughing ... · 57 minutes ago
EJ, whom I knew slightly when we were Rhodes Scholars together at Oxford, would not like this at all.
Nov '10
Re: Is It Time to Quit the Roman Catholic Church -- or to Join?
Western Chauvinist
Thanks for the link, KC. I recommend it to everyone.
Dionne's response perfectly exemplifies liberal sentiments... "see, the Church has liberal nuns! And the nuns talk social justice more than abortion! And a lot of good charitable work has been done by liberal nuns! Therefore, we liberals can't abandon the Church to those "conservative" Catholics."
I really don't want liberals to leave the Church. I want them to become more "orthodox," not more "conservative." · 6 minutes ago
Liberal Catholics --The '68-ers, I call them-- are distinguished by nothing so much as a craven need for validation by the secular Left. The Gramscian march through the institutions of the Church has left a lot of Renfields like Dionne in place. Perhaps this clear illustration of Progressivism's stupid, bigoted nature will provide a wakeup call for some. But I'm not counting on it. Rather, I'm counting on the fact that mostly such people have not had spiritual children (Why make the commitment to a Church indistinguishable from the left wing of the Democrat party?) and that when they are replaced at all, are replaced by people unlike themselves.
Jun '10
Re: Is It Time to Quit the Roman Catholic Church -- or to Join?
Paul A. Rahe
Authentic churches tend to grow. · 29 minutes ago
Exactly. It's the liberal vultures that aren't happy with the Church attracting more traditionalists. They thought orthodoxy would be dead by now.