What Do Progressive Catholics Need To Think About That Conservative Catholics Don't

Michael S wonders what I have in mind when I say that the site would improve if there were a sufficient mass of progressive Catholics engaged in active posting to support discussion of issues that are raised in their minds. I did not have in mind immigration, the environment, and the like. Let me give some examples. Progressive Catholics think the institutional Church’s position on a variety of sexual issues is wrong. Once the absolutes of the Church are abandoned, many questions follow. If the use of contraceptives is not always wrong, is it ever wrong? When? If same sex relations are permitted, when are they not morally permitted? Should the same standards apply to heterosexual partners? If virtually all abortions should not be outlawed (leaving aside double effect issues), should some be outlawed. Which should be considered immoral, but not outlawed? If masturbation is not always wrong, is it ever wrong? When? If some people who have been remarried (without an annulment) should they be permitted to receive communion? Should some not be permitted? Assuming the mandates of the institutional Church are overly strict, should all baptized individuals be able to receive communion (my understanding of the Episcopalian practice); if not, who should not? Conservative Catholics believe that the existence of knotty questions like these illustrate the dangers of departing from the Magisterium. Liberal Catholic theologians and priests who must give pastoral advice have wrestled with these questions. If this site is to be truly diverse, it should discuss questions like these. It might expect too much of those who support the Magisterium to work within the world view of those Catholics who have rejected it in some part. I don’t know.

 

Given what progressive Catholics think of the institutional church (which they typically regard as sexist, homophobic, and sometimes corrupt), why should progressives Catholics stay in the Roman Catholic Church?

 

By the way, for a terrific book in which prominent writers, actors, Bishops, politicians, and businessmen, all raised in the Catholic Church, reflect on their faith lives (or lack of it), see Kerry Kennedy (daughter of Robert and Ethel Kennedy), Being Catholic Now. Many, if not most, of those interviewed (the interviews are turned into essays) are progressives. Some have stayed in the Church; some have left; all explain what led them to where they are on their faith journey. The Kerry Kennedy essay alone is worth the price of the book. Only rare human beings will not be moved by her essay.