Liberal Catholics And Huge Emphasis On Social Justice

[southern california guy]

[quote name='homeschoolmom' timestamp='1315830430' post='2303763']
Fixed. There is only one Catholic morality. But yes, I think this is the crux of it. Easier to tell people to feed the poor than to tell them to be chaste.
[/quote]

Outside of politics "conservative" -- means to conserve. I meant to "conserve" the traditional Catholic morality -- rather than changing it -- like the Baltimore Catechism

[Norseman82]

[quote name='southern california guy' timestamp='1316144508' post='2305296']

Outside of politics "conservative" -- means to conserve. I meant to "conserve" the traditional Catholic morality -- rather than changing it -- like the Baltimore Catechism
[/quote]

Where's the "props" button for this post?

[Socrates]

[quote name='tinytherese' timestamp='1315805150' post='2303660']
Why do you think that is? I'm not saying that social justice isn't important but why ignore everything else in the faith?
[/quote]
Fortunately, I've spent most my life attending those hopelessly "conservative" parishes and Catholic institutions that still hold on to outdated un-hip, uncool, and non-"relevant" things like orthodox Catholic moral and spiritual teaching in lieu of "relevant" lefty "social justice" politics (though at the time of my confirmation, the CCD program at my parish was still run by a liberal sweater vest nun - lots of "relevent" "social justice" concepts and pics of clowns and mimes and kids strumming guitar at the beach, but not much dogmatic substance).

However, I'd say the short answer is that "liberal Catholics" have by and large abandoned the faith and spiritual things for lefty politics, and many liberal clergy and religious since the '60s and '70s have abandoned their primary mission of being shepherds of souls for being left-wing social and political activists. The damage to the Church in the West has been tremendous - though thankfully things are turning around in a number of places.


[quote name='Maggie' timestamp='1315924129' post='2304199']
As other posters have said it's an "either/or" thing that with the rising generation is hopefully fading away. A lot of times there is just preaching to the choir. The liberal parish preaches to all the liberal Catholics about social justice and the conservative parish preaches to all the conservative Catholics about contraception. I don't know why they talk all day about truths they already believe, except it makes people feel good about themselves. It's not enough to say "oh we're evangelizing the parish." I'm sorry, but given the make-up of the parish they're already evangelized on issue x, y, or z to the hilt. There ARE usually areas of evangelization strangely lacking... but nobody talks about those...

The liberals should be preached to about sex and somebody ought to come into the local traditionalist parish and teach them about the death penalty, care of creation and welcoming immigrants. These are the areas for spiritual growth for these groups. But nobody will do it because I guess it's too painful. It makes everybody mad to be challenged that way. The Catholic Church: making everybody mad for 2,000+ years.
[/quote]
Have you ever attended a traditionalist parish?

I currently attend a FSSP Latin Mass parish that most would probably characterize as extremely conservative, yet one thing you'd note about the sermons is how they are very a-political, and focus on spiritual matters of eternal salvation - avoiding sin and damnation, and taking advantage of God's grace through the sacraments and prayer. The focus is not on worldly politics - left, right, or otherwise. (The closest a sermon comes to being "political" is the sermon before the Roe v. Wade anniversary on the evil of abortion and its enshrinement as a legal "right," and how Catholics must oppose this evil. It's a shame though that many today would label the Church's age-old opposition to evils such as contraception and killing babies as "right-wing politics," as though such things were somehow the invention of the Republican party.)

The truth is (at least in my experience) that the substitution of worldly politics for the spiritual seems to be mostly the hallmark of "liberal" parishes and clergy.

There are many places in the secular world where you can hear about things like environmental issues and the need to "Save the Planet." I hear about such things all the time in the media and such without even seeking it out. There are lots of places where you can hear or read political spiels about hot-button political issues from both the left and the right.

However, there aren't many places where you can get good solid Catholic truth about the salvation of one's immortal soul, how to worthily take advantage of Christ's grace in the sacraments of His Church, the importance of a good prayer life, or unpopular moral teachings such as the evils of contraception and sexual immorality (something most political conservatives as well as liberals are woefully ignorant or disregarding of today - it's not fair to categorize contraception as a "conservative" political issue).

And Catholic teaching does not demand that nations have open borders and allow anyone who crosses over into the country, nor does care of creation necessitate that we support every big-government "environmental scheme" - but I suppose those topics are other debates in themselves. And as you all know, I'm to the right of Genghis Khan and believe in the importance of many conservative political causes - yet I don't think they should be the focus of sermons at mass.

While social justice (properly understood, which does [i]not[/i] equate to left-wing socialistic politics) is fine and good, the primary mission of the Church is the salvation of souls, and that ought to be its primary focus. While I make no claim to divine foreknowledge, based on the teaching to the Church and the writings of Her saints and mystics, I think it safe to say that no one will be damned to hell for failing to support left-wing tax-and-spend social or environmental programs. However, many risk loss of salvation through sins against chastity, lack of charity in their own personal life, and lack of a good prayer life and proper recourse to sacraments. That's what people need to hear about in church - not more of the same worldly politics.

Edited September 17, 2011 by Socrates

[Socrates]

[quote name='Norseman82' timestamp='1316219809' post='2305645']

Where's the "props" button for this post?
[/quote]
Props to the both o' ye.

[Guest stregamama]

HI, I am new here, please tell me what a liberal catholic is? - Stregamama

[Basilisa Marie]

[quote name='stregamama' timestamp='1316307107' post='2306055']
HI, I am new here, please tell me what a liberal catholic is? - Stregamama
[/quote]

Welcome to phatmass!

As you can probably gather from reading the thread, a liberal Catholic is what many around here would say isn't a "real" Catholic. A liberal Catholic is someone who calls themselves Catholic, but may have some beliefs that aren't in line with Church teaching (like, they're pro-choice or very much for women priests or whatever), or they may agree with all of Church teaching but are really into social justice and aren't a bit fan of things like adoration and the rosary. There's kind of a spectrum. Conservatives Catholics, on the other hand, may just like old school forms of devotion or might be someone that really like mass in Latin and wearing chapel veils. Again, there's a spectrum. I hope that helps.