I don’t want to be conservative and I don’t want to be liberal. I want to be Catholic

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Ran across this article Love Bears Fruit: The Triumph of Mother Angelica by Tom Hoopes.

What do you understand by this statement?

Mother Angelica said:
I don’t want to be conservative and I don’t want to be liberal. I want to be Catholic. Now if that offends the liberals, tough. If it offends the ultraconservatives, tough. I can’t be influenced by any of them. I want to know what the Church teaches.
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I am mainly interested in the statement I quoted and not in the article on the whole.

Any thoughts?
 
I would see it as just following the Holy Spirit. We see the world through the media and define it as a unity instead of a group of individuals that are independent of the group they are classed into. I am wary of this type of grouping and see this macro world view as distinctly modern. As well as superfluous.

The Holy Spirit may lead one to a world wide ministry or may lead another to a cloistered convent or monastery. The unifying force is the “good pleasure” of God. This is what we must not allow ourselves to be turned from, because it is only in our power to turn from God and it is God Who moves us by His Grace “to will and to accomplish” Phil 2:13.

Liberal and conservative is “us vs them”, but it is the individual that we have spiritual contact with and it is the individual that must not be prejudged as part of a group, either “us” or “them”. “Judge not” seems to me to be related to this type of classifying as well as the traditional meaning of judging someone hastily and possibly in error.

Being led by the Holy Spirit and not by our desires, even in the face of pain and rejection by others, is the way I read this quote by this nun who obviously lived the way she of which she spoke. She leads by example and her accomplishments are the accomplishments of God working through her.
 
Well, if you keep the Ten Commandments and if you keep the commandments of the Church and perform the spiritual and corporal works of mercy, and go to Mass at least weekly and preferably daily, and say a daily Rosary, and avoid the Seven Deadly Sins, then when you look up, think about which side of the political spectrum you happen to be on. [Sorry for the dangling participle.]
 
I don’t believe in a political spectrum. To some, politics has become a sort of religion. You have ultra-orthodox, conservative and liberal. The Bible tells us to do everything. The Magisterium of the Church is our guide. It does not just say “do this” and “don’t do that,” it tells us why.

None of the teachings are optional. It’s all there for a reason. Man has not changed in the last 2,000 years. Our computers, cell phones and other devices do not go with us when we die.

I encourage Catholics to be Catholics. The outside world is concerned about change and what it calls progress, but first, we should look to what the Church teaches about the issues of the day. Then, when we understand, we can talk to others and answer their questions.

God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

God bless,
Ed
 
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