Behind the Scenes of "Catholics United"

I've been hearing for a few months now about yet another group that falsely promotes itself as authentically and faithfully Catholic, while using this deception to assail pro-life politicians who oppose health care and welfare initiatives sponsored by the pro-abortion political left even as it gives cover to pro-abortion politicians for decidedly non-Catholic stances on the far more important right to life issues. Catholics United - not to be confused with the Steubenville, OH based Catholics United for the Faith or any group that actually defends Catholic doctrines from political assault - originally began in 2004 as the Catholic Voting Project, a supposedly non-partisan group whose thinly-veiled primary objective was to convince faithful Catholics that they could in good conscience vote for John Kerry. The group changed its name to Catholics United in 2005, and has ever since devoted itself to promoting a social justice agenda that is in keeping with the tenets of liberation theology. For those who don't know, liberation theology is an ideology that cherry picks certain aspects of Catholic teaching on social justice, but also heavily incorporates elements of Marxism. What this does in practice is cause adherents of liberation theology to strive for liberation from earthly forms of suffering and oppression (such as slavery and poverty), which in and of itself is a worthy endeavor, but not when done to the detriment or exclusion of striving for the far more important goal of eternal liberation from the shackles of sin (a liberation already won for us by Jesus Christ through His death and resurrection, but which is not forced upon us if we choose through our words and actions to reject that which is of God). A more detailed and far more eloquent dissertation on this problematic topic has already been expressed, and by no less a person than the former Cardinal Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI. His instruction, given in 1984 when he was Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, can be found here.

In a nutshell, adherents of liberation theology spend most of their time trying to reconcile Catholic belief with socialist ideology. This is more than a touch ironic, since liberation theology advocates tend to accuse orthodox Catholics of placing politics ahead of faith anytime there is an attempt to hold a politician accountable for views on right to life issues that are incompatible with Catholic belief and practice.

It was this tendency that led to a very brief but interesting Facebook instant message chat yesterday between me and an old friend from my days as an undergraduate at the University of Florida. I will share some of the details of this conversation only because of their relevance to this post: indeed, this chat served as the primary inspiration for this post, with all due to respect to my friend, whose agenda runs quite counter to my own. When I knew him, this friend was very involved with the Gainesville, FL chapter of Pax Christi USA, a dissident Catholic group committed to the ideals of liberation theology, and a group with whose members I had an unusually large number of heated exchanges both on matters of politics and on matters of faith (I quickly learned that for them, there was no distinguishing between the two). As it turns out, this friend is now one of the driving forces behind Catholics United; and though I did not know this at the time of the chat, the knowledge certainly put the conversation into proper perspective.

Now, prior to this chat, I had not had any formal contact with this friend in nearly ten years. I found him on Facebook and sent him a friend request a few weeks back, which he eventually accepted. Yesterday, however, it was he who initiated the chat; and as I soon found out, the reason for the contact was to take me to task for a Facebook status update in which I said that Barack Obama was putting the "con" back in "economy" (depending on what ideology suits you, you either understand the sentiment or you don't, so I'll not elaborate further on the point). He began by saying that as we strive for holiness, we cannot let go of Charity and goodwill. This is certainly true enough on the face of it, though it seemed an odd way to greet someone you have not spoken with in ten years. I expressed my agreement, though sensing that he was approaching this truth from a different perspective, I felt compelled to remind him that Charity is first and foremost a love of God above all things and for his own sake, and that a necessary part of loving God in such a way is to hate the devil and his evil works (I also stressed that a person's being and a person's actions are two distinct things; and if the action is sinful, one is morally obligated to love the sinner but hate the sin). His response to this, quite frankly, came across as thuggish:

"amen. now lay off obama"

As you might well imagine, this directive did not sit well with me, though I managed a laugh at the irony of the situation: I was at the time watching (on DVD) the scene from "The Godfather" where Tom Hagen was making the owner of a soon-to-be-decapitated horse "an offer that he cannot refuse." Because of my Catholic faith, I have a moral obligation to oppose Barack Obama's agenda, especially as it relates to right to life issues and the promotion of a socialist agenda, since he runs counter to Catholic belief on both counts. I pointed out that I cannot cease my criticism, as it would contradict what I had just said to him (namely, that charity demands opposition to agendas that run counter to the belief and practice of the faith handed down to us by Jesus Christ). For my refusal to cease and desist, I was promptly admonished: "put your faith before your politics." Again, with respect to my friend, my finding humor with ironic statements and the lack of a sense of irony on the part of those making such statements has its limits. This comment reeks of rank hypocrisy, plain and simple. My response was: "always have, always will."

It is not a coincidence that Catholics United feels such an overwhelming need to silence criticism of Obama. As Catholics United embraces beliefs rooted in liberation theology, and Barack Obama's 20+ year tryst with organized religion came at the feet of a man (Jeremiah Wright) whose beliefs are themselves rooted in black liberation theology (which is, needless to say, an outgrowth of liberation theology), the political and religious beliefs of Barack Obama and Catholics United are very closely intertwined. Criticism of the agenda of one is, for all intents and purposes, tantamount to criticism of the agenda of the other; and neither suffers criticism of their agenda lightly (Obama is, bar none, the thinnest-skinned politician I have ever witnessed in action). The implication by my friend that being a Catholic of charity and goodwill requires a refrain from criticism of Obama and his agenda certainly reinforces the point, as does Catholics United's own blog, which shows marked intolerance of the freedom of expression of anyone who levels criticism at Catholics United itself.

My friend went on to quote an unlinked and uncredited article from L'Osservatore Romano praising Obama for allegedly promoting a "pressing resurgence of the values of solidarity" following "a decade of exaltation of individual enrichment." I asked for the full article (for context) and the name of the individual to whom these quotes could be attributed (also for context), and was told that since L'Osservatore Romano is the official publication of the Vatican (which it is) that the source was likely either Benedict XVI or his Secretary of State (highly unlikely, as the article would be quick to attribute any quotes to such highly-placed sources). I once again pressed for the full article and name of the source, and was given neither.

The rest of the conversation was little more than him harping on Obama's promotion of health care and welfare, my stating that this pales in comparison to Obama's anti-Catholic stance on life issues, his ignoring me and returning to the issues of health care and welfare, my reiterating that the life issues are paramount, his asking me to give a clearer outline of Church teaching on health care and welfare, and my telling him to stop throwing red herring arguments out there to try to distract from the far more important life issues, at which point he chose to end the discussion (with a final reminder from me that there is no getting around the fact that certain issues carry greater moral weight than others. As it turns out, I should have emphasized this all the more, given Catholics United's attempts to apply a "seamless garment" approach whereby right to life issues and issues of stewardship carry equal moral weight. It makes sense now that my friend did not want to address that aspect of our discussion.)

Catholics United has long been critical of individuals and groups who set themselves ideologically against Catholics United. For a member of the group, then, to tell me that I was wrong to do the same with someone whose beliefs stand in opposition to my Catholic faith is an unfortunate testament to the one-sided nature of politically correct discourse. I have never been one to abide by the demands of political correctness. I'm certainly not about to start now.

I would like to issue a formal challenge today to my friend. I would like to call him out publicly and debate him on the merits of a Catholic case both for and against support of Barack Obama and his agenda, with consideration given both to the issues that are of importance to Catholics and to the moral weight that such issues hold. I believe that if my friend honestly believes that Catholics should be uncritical and supportive of our President's agenda, then he will welcome the opportunity to make his case in a public forum; and as such, he would also welcome the further exposure that such a forum would bring to Catholics United. I eagerly await a response.