Posted on 11/29/2011 4:33:50 AM PST by jacknhoo
To certain Catholics, Peter Kreeft is a rock star.
That was evident Nov. 18, when nearly 500 people filled an auditorium at the Bishop O'Connor Center in Madison to hear him talk.
Kreeft, a Catholic author and Boston College philosophy professor, had been asked by the Catholic Diocese of Madison to speak on whether "a Catholic can be a liberal." Kreeft called it "a very challenging question" and said he'd never spoken on it before.
Kreeft is a strong defender of the Catholic Church against what some people call "modernists" or, more derisively, "cafeteria Catholics," people who pick and choose which church teachings to follow.
There is no middle ground to Kreeft. It would be silly and redundant to him, for instance, to call someone a "pro-life Catholic." You cannot be anything but against abortion to be a Catholic, Kreeft said.
"To be a Catholic is to take the whole deal," he told the crowd.
Kreeft said several definitions of a liberal can and should fit Catholics, including "someone who is generous and unselfish" and "someone who highly values liberty and freedom."
On abortion, Kreeft contended Catholics are the "true liberals," because a liberal wants to extend liberty to the oppressed, and "the unborn are the most oppressed," he said.
Yet, in the political realm, the term liberal has been hijacked by abortion rights activists, Kreeft said. "A Catholic cannot be today what is called a liberal about abortion. That's obvious. That's a ‘duh.'"
Kreeft mentioned other issues, such as homosexual marriage and euthanasia, that he said Catholics cannot take politically liberal positions on, yet he focused most on abortion. Coming in for the most criticism were elected officials who call themselves Catholic yet support abortion rights.
During the Q&A, an audience member brought up the Kennedy political dynasty and how a group of leading theologians and Catholic college professors had met with Kennedy family members in the mid-1960s and came up with a way for Catholic politicians to support a pro-abortion rights platform with clear consciences.
Kreeft said these Catholic advisers "told the Kennedys how they could get away with murder." Kreeft then made one of his boldest comments of the evening, suggesting the theologians who first convinced Democratic politicians they could support abortion rights and remain Catholic did more damage to the Catholic Church than pedophile priests.
"These were wicked people. These were dishonest people. These were people who, frankly, loved power more than they loved God," Kreeft said. "Sorry, that's just the way it is. In fact, I'd say these were even worse than the child molesters — though the immediate damage they did was not as obvious — because they did it deliberately, it wasn't a sin of weakness. Sins of power are worse than sins of weakness. Cold, calculating sins — that's straight from the devil."
A few minutes later, the talk over, the crowd gave him a standing ovation.
I see the Vatican doing a LOT of reining-in of a number of Catholics who claim to be Catholic and liberal as well.
“Well, I can’t speak for everyone who attends the TLM I attend, but of those I know personally (at least 100), NOT ONE is a liberal in any way. I wish I could say the same for all the N.O. Catholics I know. Still...even most N.O. Catholics of my acquaintance are quite conservative. Birds of a feather, I guess; I associate with those who think as I do.”
I sense also as well those who attend the NO mass, most I know, are center-right. The ones who are CINOS, are more often than not, those “C and E” Catholics.
Oh to have heard a sermon like that at my NO parish. My pastor made his feelings known about 0, but in a much more milquetoast, indirect, and subdued way. And this was at one of the more conservative parishes in the diocese.
By contrast, the weekend of September 11, my NO pastor gave a sermon on forgiving our enemies. Meanwhile, at the TLM I attendted that week, the priest gave a detailed history of the Battle of Vienna in 1683 and how Western Europe was saved from being overrun by Mohammedans by the saintly heroics of Jan III Sobieski.
Where in this article does the Pope explicitly endorse the positions you outline above? The point he was making was that bishops should not fear to use their voice in the public sphere. Whether they do that wisely is up to the bishops.
You are implying something that the Pope in fact did not say. This is at best a distortion.
I bet you would be surprised to learn that in 1st century Israel there was child sacrifice, religious sexual immorality and other heathen worship committed by some, in fact in Caesarea Philippi was famous for worship of Pan. Jesus certainly visited this area, no record of his turning over tables there so it is hard to say what he would do at an abortion mill. My guess is that he would invite the owner of the mill to dinner and present the gospel to him same as he did with Zaccheus.
I certainly agree that abortion is a sin, a sin just like all the others and it is a scourge on the land. Like you I cannot understand anyone calling themselves a Christian and allowing this to continue. But keep in mind it is was practiced in Jesus day.
My point? Jesus took the sinner from at the point that he was when he encountered him and transformed the individual into a new creation. The old creation has no problem with abortion, the change has to be from within. The new creation in Christ, well, that is a different story.
Later someone asked Miller why he didn't change parties. He said that being a Democrat was like being in one's family house. The house may be old, run down and in need of repair. One tried to fix that old house but one just didn't move...it was home.
Perhaps one can be a Democrat like that, with the soul of a Republican. Perhaps.
My husband gave me a recording of that speech; I wonder if I still have it. It was ONE HECK OF A SPEECH. Miller would have been an OUTSTANDING preacher.
Here’s Kreeft’s website: http://peterkreeft.com/audio.htm
That link take you to his audios. A treasure trove of sanity.
That is a truly insightful comment - thanks!
Ah! You got a sermon on Jan Sobieski and the Battle of Vienna, and we got one on the Battle of Lepanto! My (TLM) priest doesn’t mince words, and I suspect yours doesn’t, either.
Regards,
Amen! I don't think that can be said loudly enough!
A church that endorses policies that will destroy my nation is not worthy of my devotion.
Dimocrats have as a plank of their platform the total support of abortion.
Thus, no dimocrat can be a Catholic.
They are CINOs.
Yes.
If you’re liberal because you are stupid, ignorant, or misinformed, I don’t see why you still can’t be considered Catholic.
“In the Spirit: Can a Catholic also be a liberal?”
I was under the impression that most are.
Liberalism is the first religion of cafeteria catholics.
anyone who never does anything for anybody and refuses to participate in civic matters could be guilty of sins of omission. Anyone who engages in foolish political activity on behalf of the prolife cause and fails to use sound judgment is guilty of inprudence. And Prudence is not one of the optional virtues.
the 40% includes mostly minorities and urban whites.
White Catholics in the suburbs who are in church on Sunday morning are overwhelming Republican voters, despite whatever their registration may say.
They are not particularly active in politics, however.
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