"Cafeteria Catholics" Unite With Obama

"RENEWING THE AMERICAN DREAM"


“Cafeteria Catholic” is a term used to describe people who enjoy a Catholic self-identification, on some level, but reject all or part of Catholic teaching.

Most of them are modest about their views, only wanting to live and let-live, but others become aggressively evangelical, expecting the Church to change positions held for 2000 years, for which the blood of saints was spilled, to whore after current theological or liturgical fashions. These are the Tyrants of Relativism, bullying hapless pew-warmers and priests.

Busy, busy, busy. Catholics United, Pax Christi USA, Network, the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, Conference of Major Superiors of Men, the Jesuit Conference, School of the Americas Watch, Franciscan Action Network, Sisters of Mercy, Africa Faith and Justice Network, the Center of Concern, Catholic Scholars for Worker Justice, and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good are some of the groups involved in political activism that has caused them to compromise Catholic moral principles – and in some cases, to ditch those principles altogether.

Catholics United and its partner organization Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good (CACD), for example, have openly endorsed pro-choice, Democratic candidates. Others among the above have been involved for decades with the dissident Call to Action movement, working inside the Church to change moral truths and Church structures. So, we’re not talking about folks who are representative of Catholicism. They only represent themselves, bound by the prejudices of their own, particular era and geography.

In July 2008, CACD sponsored a convention and, with these aforementioned groups, prepared a “Platform for the Common Good,” giving high priority to environmental concerns, international development and trade, health care reform, immigration, domestic policy, and poverty reduction. Those are important issues but what about the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death? Their view of the “common good” overlooked that rather fundamental point.

Stephanie Block is the editor of Los Pequenos - a New Mexico-based publication. Her columns are made possible by the sponsorship of generous individuals who believe information about the development and dissemination of progressive ideology needs to be more widely understood. Please fell free to share -- acknowledging authorship -- these articles with others.