Response to Father Araujo Pt. 2: Who is a Catholic and What Should It Mean for this SIte?

As I understand him, Father Araujo argues that those who depart from the Magisterium are not really Catholic. They are no different from Protestants. This is a significant claim since the overwhelming majority of American Catholics depart from the Magisterium in significant areas (much of the rest of the world may do so as well). I asked why these dissenters do not leave the Church and tentatively suggested a number of possible factors including a belief in the sacraments, participation in the community of discourse of Catholic tradition, the rejection of individualism, an emphasis on God’s grace and on God’s goodness working in the world, and I should have mentioned the place of Mary, the saints, and the communion of saints in Catholic doctrine. My point is that dissenting Catholics like Father Curran and the late Father McCormick, are part of a Catholic tradition that on the whole is different from Protestants even though they depart on some significant moral issues from the Magisterium.   In response, Father Araujo says that many Protestants celebrate some or all of the sacraments (typically only two and without the understanding of the real presence, as I understand it); he says they Protestants also participate in theological discourse (but it is a different community of discourse); he says some Protestants proclaim the common good over exaggerated individualism (but individualism marks their dialogue far more than Catholicism); he says the Catholic Church teaches us about evil (no Catholic has ever missed this) as well as about God’s grace and goodness working in the world (of course, but it seems clear to many that the Catholic or analogical imagination (see Greeley or Tracy)  marks out a general difference from Protestants. 
Father Araujo suggests that dissenting Catholics may have something to say about legal theory, but wonders if it is Catholic when it is against the Church rather than with the Church. He says: “If one’s thinking is rooted other than in the Church, I do not see how it is possible to argue that one’s legal theory is in the Church.” One answer is that the theory of dissenting Catholics is in the Church, but the Church is not exclusively the institutional Church; dissenting Catholic theory takes seriously the experience of the People of God in a way that the institutional Church does not. In addition, I am not sure what to make of this, but dissenting theologians have not been excommunicated (though some have been told they not may speak in the name of the Church). The Pope has met with Hans Kung (who can not speak for the Church), but seems otherwise to be in good standing as a Catholic priest. (Ditto for Charles Curran). And the American bishops recently defeated a move (I know this thanks to Michael Perry’s last post) that would have told Catholics who rejected the institutional Church’s abortion teaching not to present themselves for communion.
When the American Catholics dissent in such substantial numbers, when extremely prominent theologians are dissenting Catholics, and when (according to Greeley’s research) they are joined by a large percentage of priests, I think the idea that the implications of their views should not be explored on this site (except to combat them) on the ground that they are not really Catholic is more narrow than it ought to be. We can do more than mirror the views of the institutional Church. I think a site that explores the implications of the views put forward by the institutional Church and the implications of the views put forward by progressive theologians and the majority of Catholics would provide an intellectually richer site and, in the end, might be of service to Magisterial and Dissenting Catholics alike.
I would like to thank Father Araujo for the civility and care of his sensitive post. I have focused on our disagreements, but whether I, as a Progressive Catholic, am a Catholic or a Protestant, I think  our religious agreement far outstrips our differences. As my favorite Catholic priest has said many times, the moral differences that divide the Church are important, very important, but emphasis on those differences smothers vast areas of fundamental agreement. A site that attempts to be a mirror of justice will inevitably accent our differences. Given that, we should work hard to avoid heat and incivility. I applaud Father Araujo for having done that on this difficult issue.