In the history of bad ideas we almost always find that there is always room for another bad idea. This time it is the idea of a “Catholic Tea Party” as promoted by Deal Hudson and others. While I am largely in agreement with the aims of such, I think the name does more harm than good.

I don’t say this because Catholic should not be associated with the political Tea Party movement if they want to, but that the term is another unhelpful politicization of the Church. So many terms adopted from the political sphere become nonsense when applied to Catholic movements. Right, Left, Conservative, Liberal, Progressive, Far Right, Far Left become labels that in the end don’t tell you anything.

I’ve written before about prefix-Catholicism that always narrows the meaning of Catholicism. You don’t need a prefix for universal since any prefix narrows the scope. Ultimately there are only orthodox and heterodox Catholics. But among orthodox Catholics there is also large room for prudential disagreements on how best to live and to apply the Catholic faith.

When you confuse the faith with a political party it makes it easier for someone in the other party to dismiss you.

Fighting against abortion is not a conservative thing, it is a protection of the truth that we are created in the image of God and that the innocent can not be murdered. Doing what we can to help the poor is not a liberal idea, but again the protection of the truth that we are created in the image of God and that we can not limit the scope of the world neighbor.

In the area of prudential application of the faith, these actions often overlap into the political sphere and thus at times we must interact with that sphere. Foremost we need to determine if our prudential actions are indeed motivated by the faith or by a political party. Really everybody believes that we should be good stewards of the environment, to help our neighbor when they are in need, that we have a healthy economy that supports job growth and provides a fair wage. It is such nonsense in politics to accuse others of not having what are really basic agreements. The real disagreements come into place in regards to prudential decisions on how to best achieve these goals. Criticism of policies that don’t meet the goals of course are fair play, but the polemics of people saying the other side hates such and such is useless. These types of polarizations do way too much damage and as Catholics we really should assume good motives of others even if we totally disagree with their means of achieving something.

Some of these disagreements range into the are of the support of things that are intrinsically evil. Where a political party supports an intrinsic evil such as abortion, ESCR, homosexual acts, human cloning, euthanasia, torture, etc they must be totally opposed and every effort made to destroy the support and use of such evils. This should be done without lapsing into the hatred and demonization of those who hold opinions supporting intrinsic evils. Loving our enemies means both that we can have real enemies and that our primary motive must be to seek their repentance.

The identification of the Catholic faith with a specific political party is fraught with danger. In the last century Catholics largely identified with the Democratic Party and when that party started supporting intrinsic evils such as abortion it caused people to diminish this problem. Instead of Catholic Democrats revolting at this corruption, largely excuses were made and the Bishop’s conference decided to go into three monkey mode for decades in regards to this. With so many Catholics making up the Democratic Party then they should have been able to reject this perversion allowed under the corrupting auspices of a false feminism. Moral relativism became the standard in support of this evil and evidence of the trumping of the Catholic faith by political idea. The same thing happened when torture was used by the Bush administration and once again moral relativists decided that an evil could be promoted to bring a greater good. Way to few Catholics who were Republicans spoke against this outrage and mostly when on to advance the same moral relativistic arguments the pro-abortion types advanced.

This confusion between the Catholic faith and the sphere of political parties is a common one and something we must always be aware of. At one time I would have been politically described as a man of the left and now as a man of the right. It is a constant temptation for me to make the error I mentioned and I have to evaluate myself as to whether something I believe is a result of my Catholic faith or a sympathy towards a political party. I do not want to personally make the mistake the Catholic Democrats made when it came to abortion. I might have easily done this in regards to torture when looking for wiggle room in the magisterial documents and finding no such wiggle room. I only pray to continually be intellectually honest enough to not make this mistake in the future. Though it is also seems to me a temptation to say “A pox on both of their houses” since political parties can be useful to advance the common good, just never forget to do what you can on a personal level to do the same.

Now back to the topic of this wordy rant. I certainly think the name “Catholic Tea Party” is a bad idea. I think though the aim of it is mostly correct. The Church is always in need of reform because each of it’s members are always in need of reform. Renewal is always needed, with the caveat that G.K. Chesterton suggested “The reformer is always right about what is wrong. He is generally wrong about what is right.” I certainly think a general movement of Catholics who are orthodox in their faith is needed and much good can be done by those Catholics who reform themselves and seek to fully know their faith so that true reform can be achieved.

Now if someone had asked this lowly couch critic the name for such a movement I would have offered one much better than the “Catholic Tea Party”, I would suggest the “Catholic Trent Party.” The Council of Trent was a large leap in the right direction of necessary reform after the Protestant revolt. They made necessary clarification in response to the errors of the day and built upon the constant teaching of the Church to clarify and to achieve this. This reform included such saints as Ignatius of Loyola , Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, and Francis de Sales. Politicization of the Catholic Church did not achieve this reform, but saints and those living their faith.

Sometimes you hear about the ulterior motives of some parts of the “Green” movement and that it is really anti-human. Philosophies like Deep Ecology start by placing humans at an equal level of other parts of the ecology and end in dehumanization and worship of the environment.

This underlying theme has never been more apparent than a video created for the 10:10 campaign concerning climate change and reducing your carbon footprint by ten percent. The video is so violent and sick that after an outcry the people behind this campaign are now trying to get the video taken down.

You can see the ad here.

You just have to wonder about the mindset of a group that created the video to support the cause. That they actually thought this would be a persuasive video is stunning, It seemed more like wish fulfillment than anything. Disagree with us and you will blow-up violently.

Lots of stories recently about a a new poll that “finds atheist and agnostics know more about religion than believers do.” Some blogs have been decrying the state of Catholic eduction since what they identified as Catholics did the worst on the 32 question quiz.

Jimmy Akin wrote an excellent response to this poll basically saying that like most polls it does not necessarily prove anything and the majority of questions on the quiz do not relate to the faith of the person taking the quiz. It was more comparative religion trivia than what the person who took the quiz knows about their faith.

I took the quiz and got a perfect score and I can certainly say that if I had taken the same quiz when I was an atheist I would have been lucky to get any right except the questions on public schools. Though I was a rather arrogant atheist so firm in my disbelief that I never investigated religions at all. There were more questions about Mormons than Catholics. So I can easily see why many people would not do very well on this test. I knew the answers by reading apologetics and listening to Catholic Answers since they day they started their radio show.

As to 55% of Catholics getting Catholic teaching on the Eucharist correct it is hard to say what that means. Someone identifying themselves as Catholic does not really say much since many who have stopped practicing their faith still identify themselves as such. While I have no problems decrying the state of Catholic education, I would seriously doubt that only 55% of weekly Mass going Catholics did know this teaching. It is another story how much they believe in the Eucharist. In fact we should be amazed that after decades of felt banner apologetics and weak catechetical tools that so many believe and that Eucharistic Adoration is on the upswing.

“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.” Winston Churchill

In this case a lie will be shown in art house theaters throughout the world and will seep into the culture as another piece of what Mark Shea calls psuedo-knowledge.  The movie Agora by Alejandro Amenába takes a Dan Brown “historical” approach to the story of Hypatia and makes it into a bit of Anti-Catholic agitprop of the Church’s hatred of science.  A fun house mirror approach to history.

Even though this movie will not be widely watched or have the influence of the Da Vinci Code, it could garner awards and the ideas behind it will probably become more well known than the movie itself.

Sandra Miesel the master of the historical debunk writes an excellent article on the actual history of Hypatia and the destruction of the Library at Alexandra before her birth.  Her article is well worth reading and bookmarking for future reference.

Sometimes you just have to laugh at media coverage on the Church. Case in point this New York Times headline.

Woman in Priestly Garb Sounds ‘a Great Echo’

(Look at my Pac-Man imitation – wonka wonka wonka)

MILAN — While other little girls in her hometown of Nissoria, Sicily, were dressing up and playing house, Maria Vittoria Longhitano would pretend to say Mass, dispensing cookies and chips to her toys for communion. Sometimes, she would even baptize her dolls.

As a child, she prayed to St. Rita — much venerated in Sicily — asking for her intervention to become a priest.

Well St. Rita is the Saint of the Impossible and certainly women being priest is impossible since it is Christ’s will that only men can be ordained just as it was the will of God that only women can become mothers. But usually people pray to St. Rita for not something technically impossible, just something difficult or improbable.

The article than goes on with the nonsense about the Vatican equating women’s ordination with sexual abuse. “We will not veer or stray from this meme and will make no effort to put things into the proper context.”

Ms. Longhitano’s spiritual journey eventually led her to the Old Catholic Church, a denomination that split from the Roman Catholic Church in the 19th century, mostly over the issue of papal infallibility. She studied theology at the University of Catania.

Well at least she is not pretending to be a Catholic priest. Though I would think she is still excommunicated since she was a Catholic.

It reverberated especially loudly against a backdrop of mounting dissatisfaction — even in this traditionally Roman Catholic country — with what many perceive as the Vatican’s inadequate response to the global pedophilia scandal sweeping the clergy. Widely covered by the Italian news media, her ordination seemed to present another instance of a changing society at odds with the Vatican and its worldview.

“It was a strong signal, a way of opening the way,” said Mother Vittoria. “Rome is the center of Christianity; I think I gave a sense of hope to sister Catholics.”

So the media widely covering something is proof any anything, especially in regards to Italy and the Vatican?

Perhaps, but her Roman Catholic sisters will have to bide their time.

Nice bit of editorializing, but these Catholics sister better not hold their breaths waiting for what will never happen.

Mother Vittoria said that she was actually optimistic about the effects of the recent Vatican pronouncement, and that she believed that the ban on priests could ultimately open the road to having female deacons, who are also not currently allowed in the Roman Catholic Church. “The world is changing, and I see that there’s growing support for women,” she said.

Vatican observers were more doubtful. In fact, the closing of Vatican ranks to women may be leading more people to the open doors of the Old Catholic Church, Bishop Müller said.

Previously in this article they mention there are about 300 members of the Old Catholic Church in Italy. Gee any day now because of this issue their ranks could swell to 302! Plus look at the wonders women “priests” have done to swell the ranks of Anglicans and Episcopalians. Oh wait these denominations are further shrinking.

“We were excommunicated in 2008, but we rejected it,” said Bridget Mary Meehan, a spokeswoman for the Roman Catholic Womenpriests organization, who was ordained a priest in 2006 without Vatican consent. “What matters is that we follow our conscience.”

You can do that? Wow how come somebody didn’t tell me before. When I got that speeding ticket years ago I would have rejected it. You can’t ticket me, I reject it.

Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman is surely praying for all those who talk about following their conscience yet seem to have no idea about the duty they have to their conscience to inform it. In some ways the conscience is like a map. If you just use any map it might not be accurate. You could easily get lost using a map designed by bad mapmaker. You have a duty to make sure the map you use is correct and to keep it updated – or in the case of your conscience informed. If your conscience is telling you to reject the magisterium and the constant teaching of the Church, you just might need to download an update to that conscience of yours.

Since Bishop Vasa was first installed as a Bishop I have been following him with interest via his Diocesan articles and other speeches. He is certainly a bishop I greatly admire for both what he says and what he does.

Recently Bishop Vasa delivered a speech at the 2010 InsideCatholic Partnership Award Dinner on September 16 titled “Sacred Duties, Episcopal Ministry.” In it he discuses the role of the bishop’s conference and the role of the bishop. I could hardly agree more with what he has to say.

There is a joke that you never see any statues commemorating committees and really and the same problems plaque the USSCB. Committees hate strong statements and USCCB documents often fail to do the same. I loved the balance of the Bishop’s article in how he praised the good of what a bishop’s conference can do, but that it is no replacement for the bishop’s unique role towards his flock. I certainly believe Bishop’s conferences have a role to play, but too often they become an excuse for a bishop not to act. The documents coming out of the USCCB in recent years have certainly improved and become more doctrinally sound, but really what percentage of the laity actually read them besides bloggers and other interested parties? Plus the fact that the documents carry no actual weight in them besides the magisterial weight of any doctrines discussed.

Some bishops perhaps lean more strongly by temperament to reproving and correcting, while others favor the kinder, gentler approach of appealing. In my view, appealing has its place, but when constant appeal produces absolutely no movement toward self-correction, reform or conversion, then reproving and correcting, become necessary. At some point, there needs to be a bold resistance to the powers of the world in defense of the flock. The fear of offending one contemptuously dissident member of the flock often redounds to a failure to defend the flock. It can redound to a failure to teach the truth. In Saint Gregory’s words: “They hesitate to say openly what is right because they fear losing the favor of men but the men and women whose favor may be in jeopardy are often not nearly as favorable as they imagine.”

Unfortunately, the desire to rely almost exclusively on appeal may be indicative of a fear of reproach. This is not new. I mentioned above Saint Gregory’s acknowledgment of this reality. He chastised those who were afraid to reproach men for their faults, and thereby lulled the evildoer with an empty promise of safety. Not only the evildoer but all the members of the flock who see the evildoers carry on with impunity begin to doubt and question their own moral assessments. I hear from many laity that their perception of a lack of courage on the part of episcopal leaders redounds to a discouragement of the faithful.

Fortunately, courage is contagious. Those of you congregated here have undoubtedly been encouraged, literally made more courageous, as a result of Archbishop Raymond Burke’s courage. You have undoubtedly admired Bishop Joseph Martino and Bishop Thomas Tobin for their courage in confronting dissident groups in their dioceses. You are allowed to stand a bit taller as you see Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix boldly confront medical moral evils. You know well, appreciate, and are emboldened by the courage of a Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz, who unflinchingly speaks an often unpopular truth. These men all encourage you, and they encourage me as well. I am humbled to think that some of you might even be encouraged by me.

What he says is exactly right. It seems to me that there are many bishops who are quite orthodox in their faith and yet when it comes to providing leadership on a issue seem to shy away, especially if it might be interpreted in a political partisan light. You have gone off the track when the care of souls can be trumped about worries about how your act is interpreted. Though of course our bishops need to be held up in our prayers as Moses’ hands were held up.

Bishop Vasa also goes on to write about the difficulties involved in speaking out both perceived and actual and speaking out certainly requires prudence to bring about a desired outcome. I am quite glad I am not a bishop and can certainly understand those priests who did not want to get elevated to the episcopacy since they understood the heavy weight of the bishopric concerning the spiritual welfare of their flock.

In positive USCCB news:

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine issued a censure of a book co-authored by two Creighton University theologians, calling it “a radical departure from the Catholic theological tradition”, “harmful to one’s moral and spiritual life” and asserting that it “proposes ways of living a Christian life that do not accord with the teaching of the Church and Christian tradition.”