Cardinal George on Political Correctness

  • Thread starter Thread starter Charlemagne_II
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
C

Charlemagne_II

Guest
Cardinal George and the bishops of Illinois recently issued a letter concerning Governor Pat Quinn’s views conflicting with those of the Church. This is what they said.

“We share the Governor’s concern for the poor,” they wrote. “From our point of view, however, this was a meeting between pastors and a member of the Church to discuss the principles of faith, not the works of faith. On several occasions, the Governor has referred to his Catholic conscience and faith as the justification for certain political decisions.”

The letter continued: “As Catholic pastors, we wanted to remind the Governor that conscience, while always free, is properly formed in harmony with the tradition of the Church, as defined by Scripture and authentic teaching authority. A personal conscience that is not consistent with authentic Catholic teaching is not a Catholic conscience. The Catholic faith cannot be used to justify positions contrary to the faith itself. It is a matter of personal integrity for people who call themselves Catholic to act in a manner that is consistent with the teachings of the Catholic Church.”

Any comments?
 
Hokomai said:
What has this to do with political correctness?
Click to expand...
That was my question after reading this. I agree with what his eminence said, but I wouldn’t read “anti-political correctness” into it.

God bless,

Rob
 
Charlemagne_II said:
Many Catholic politicians say and do what they think is politically correct - expedient - to curry favor with certain voters, even when they know what they are saying or doing is against the teaching of the Church. You don’t get to use “conscience” as a cop out when you know very well what the Church teaches.

reuters.com/article/2012/02/13/us-gaymarriage-washington-idUSTRE81C15L20120213
Click to expand...
I think there is enough misuse of 'politically correct" without extending its meaning still further to 'expedient" or “populist”
 
Hokomai said:
I think there is enough misuse of 'politically correct" without extending its meaning still further to 'expedient" or “populist”
Click to expand...
I agree. Politically correctness or incorrectness is not necessarily contingent on the nature of an idea itself, but in the way and toward the end that it is expressed and despite the rap that it often gets, it’s not an inherently bad thing. I can use politically correct language and still express the teachings of the Church in a way that people can understand. What I would not be doing is speaking contrary to my faith, which is what is often described as “political correctness”.

Example of what political correctness is: I find out at the watercooler at work that a coworker of mine supports Planned Parenthood. When another coworker comes along and joins the conversation, instead of saying “Sally supports the slaughter of innocent babies” to catch Bert up on the conversation, I say “we were just talking about our personal views on the work Planned Parenthood does; Sally was just saying that she supports them; I don’t; what do you think?”

Example of what political correctness is not: Same scenario, only instead of saying what I truly believe on the matter, I nod and agree with what my coworker says so as to not express a belief that could be controversial.

See? There are probably many instances in which right-wing, conservative Catholics on this very forum who probably take pride in their personal belief that they are “politically incorrect” are actually being very much politically correct so as to not appear to be abbrasive fools who make an unnecessary stink about everything with which they don’t agree. 🙂

God bless,

Rob
 
Charlemagne_II said:
Cardinal George and the bishops of Illinois recently issued a letter concerning Governor Pat Quinn’s views conflicting with those of the Church. This is what they said.

“We share the Governor’s concern for the poor,” they wrote. “From our point of view, however, this was a meeting between pastors and a member of the Church to discuss the principles of faith, not the works of faith. On several occasions, the Governor has referred to his Catholic conscience and faith as the justification for certain political decisions.”

The letter continued: “As Catholic pastors, we wanted to remind the Governor that conscience, while always free, is properly formed in harmony with the tradition of the Church, as defined by Scripture and authentic teaching authority. A personal conscience that is not consistent with authentic Catholic teaching is not a Catholic conscience. The Catholic faith cannot be used to justify positions contrary to the faith itself. It is a matter of personal integrity for people who call themselves Catholic to act in a manner that is consistent with the teachings of the Catholic Church.”

Any comments?
Click to expand...
When I first read the title of the thread, I thought you must have been refering to Cardinal George Pell, an Australian Caedinal. Pell has made a name for himself as a strident critic of political correctness and of those who reach high office under the banner of Catholicism, then go on to adopt the expedient when faced with the secularism of real politics.

Read what Pell has to say about it here -
In a Jan. 4 interview with the Sunday Herald Sun, Cardinal Pell gave a sharp rebuke to Australian members of parliament who “fly under the Christian or Captain Catholic flag” but “blithely disregard Christian perspectives” in their actions.
Click to expand...
Cardinal Pell called out politicians who endorse secular stances on issues while insisting that they’re Catholics, saying, “if you’re espousing something that’s not a Christian position, don’t claim Christian backing for that."
Click to expand...
This problem is not confined to the United States, but is apparent in Australia, the U.K., Canada and Europe. Western civilisation is shooting itself in the foot because those who represent the people are not willing to publicly state that the very foundations of western society are Christian.

Catholics in public office don’t adhere to Catholic teaching. Neither, for that matter, do Christians from other denominations adhere to Christian principles. They are adopting the secular stance on moral issues and are in fact attempting to disassociate Christian ethics from public decision making. To that extent, what Charlegmagne II has labelled as “political correctness” is true.

In terms of Catholicism, which, in case anyone has forgotten, is the original Christian Church, Pell, almost echoing the Illinois Cardinal George, has this to say to Catholics in public office -
The Catholic Church “doesn’t teach the primacy of conscience,” he said, explaining that a person’s conscience doesn’t trump Church teaching. “You know if somebody said apartheid was all right, nobody would say, ‘Yes you can say that because of the primacy of conscience.’"
Click to expand...
It’s about those in public office having the moral courage to stand up for what they purport to believe in. After all, it’s those beliefs which made them who they are and which in turn got them elected in the first place.

Cardinal Pell certainly has that moral courage. I personally think he’d make a great Pope.
 
It’s at least a start.

I think for too long the hierarchy kept quiet for fear of backlash. Well, the backlash is here anyway, so they might as well start making some noise.
 
Hokomai

**I think there is enough misuse of 'politically correct" without extending its meaning still further to 'expedient" or “populist” **

Expedience and populism are at the heart of political correctness. Our civilization is awash in the idea that you don’t say anything that will make you unpopular with anybody. That is political correctness, and that is exactly what many Catholic politicians are doing today. Shame on them and shame on the Catholics who defend them. :mad:

Cardinal George and the other bishops of Illinois \ had the courage to take that Catholic governor to the woodshed for falsely representing the Church and making it thus appear that he could be a Catholic and politically correct at the same time.

You have the same Catholic mentality here at Catholic Answers and elsewhere. Some Catholics will boldly tell you that it’s O.K. to disagree with the Catechism of the Catholic Church because conscience trumps doctrine. These are Catholics consumed by the desire to fit in (be politically correct) with a morally corrupt society.
 
I say good for the cardinal. There are to many “catholic” politians running around claiming they stand up for what us catholic’s believe. More of the bishops need to be doing this.👍
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top