10/22/03
AMERICAN LIBERALISM AND ROMANISM
By J. Parnell McCarter
In another article I surveyed some of the significant influence of Romanism in the American conservative movement. It should take even less evidence to show its significant influence in the American liberal movement. Most Catholics, along with most Jews, were part of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal constituency. And that was not a mere accident; most of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in America was for many years decidedly Democratic. But today the Roman Catholic Church can afford to have a strong presence in both camps- Republican as well as Democratic. Below are some sample respects in which it influential in the liberal Democratic camp:
1. http://www.tboyle.net/University/LARRY_FLYNT_AT_GU.html :
the consistently pro-abortion Robert F. Drinan, S.J.
Another Georgetown/O'Donovan/Flynt connection was noted by a faculty member and, as so often happens in Washington, it was to Clinton. Georgetown's president has dined with the current American President at the White House, flown on Air Force One, and given Clinton repeated opportunities to speak at the University in what many feel was an attempt to establish an aura of respectability for Bill. Flynt, who offered a million dollars to anyone who could come up with dirt on those who voted against Clinton in the House and Senate, attended the White House Correspondents' dinner on Saturday night after his Georgetown gig and Susan McDougal, who went to prison rather than rat on the President, sat on Flynt's lap and told the pornographer "You are my hero."
2. http://www.newoxfordreview.org/2001/nov01/newoxfordnotes.html :
These days the Jesuits' America magazine is really pushing the envelope. We are now habituated to picking up the most recent issue and wondering how it will manage to top the bizarre utterances of previous issues. Well, the July 30-August 6 issue has come up with a real doozy that even future issues will be hard put to beat.
In the "Of Many Things" column, Associate Editor David S. Toolan, S.J., in extolling tolerance and bellyaching about how Catholicism has historically expelled, in his words, "heretical Christians" from its midst, says: "The fact is that from the very beginning, the language of hate, exclusion and excision had coexisted in Christianity with the language of forbearance and love of enemies. Think of…. the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew, which just after the injunction to love one's enemies issues a withering attack on false insiders who say `Lord, Lord' and will be cast out as `evil-doers' (Mt. 7:21-23)" (italics added).
3. http://www.credopub.com/archives/2002/iss20020826/iss20020826.htm (note: Granholm is Democratic governor of Michigan) :
Priest defends pro-choice stance of politician
Following is the column by Fr. Dennis ‘Doc’ Ortman, associate pastor, on the front page of the Aug. 4 Counsellor, weekly bulletin of Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in Plymouth. The column was titled “Father Doc’s Den.”
“Many people have come to me in the two weeks just past to ask about television ads which point out that Ms. Granholm, our sister, is pro choice. The concern has come from a mistaken notion that being pro choice is equal to being pro abortion. However, choice is part of the very foundation of our Catholic Christian Community. There are some who would gloss over theological reflection for the sake of emotion; these people often end up persecuting other brothers and sisters through their ignorance. As disciples of the Lord Jesus we are required to pray for their good, and for their enlightenment.
“The Lord God has created all people in absolute freedom. Every action we take, each word we utter, is a matter of choice. As Catholic Christians we understand that this Awesome freedom carries with it a grave responsibility. In the light of the teaching of Jesus we make choices according to a well formed conscience—a conscience which is founded in the gospel which proclaims the blessedness of all people in any circumstances.
“Scripture tells us that when God was finished creating…
4. http://www.thewandererpress.com/A5-29-03.htm :
Avery Cardinal Dulles,
S.J., offered the baccalaureate Mass in the Chapel of Christ the King and
delivered the homily. Cardinal Dulles chose to speak on a special theme of
Christ’s which is very near and dear to Christendom College: The Way, the
Truth, and the Life. In fact, these words appear in the college’s logo.
Treasure the fact that
you have been given a Catholic education in which the truth of Revelation was
not severed from the truth of the human sciences," exhorted Cardinal
Dulles. "There are many rivers of truth, but in the end they merge into
one undivided stream. When the perennial questions are seriously asked, Christ
can be recognized as the encompassing truth. Truth in the end turns out to be a
Person, a Person whom we encounter both in the proclamation of the Gospel and
in the ministry of the sacraments."
5. http://www.sju.edu/ucomm/archives/2001/february/HawkEye_02-20.pdf