P
ProgressiveCatholic
Guest
I am a progressive Catholic. I am currently going to the United Church of Christ because, ironically, it’s a place where I can live out my Catholicism (Congregationalism is in line with the theology of the Church described by such theologians as Schillebeeckx and Boff). I would rather, however, be a Catholic in the Roman Catholic Church. That doesn’t seem possible here. In the Lincoln diocese, I can’t be a Catholic–
who understands the moral theology of Amoris Laetitia and embraces it;
who believes in the seamless garment of life and wants to build the kind of social safety net which makes abortion unnecessary rather than fruitlessly try to make it illegal;
who strongly disagrees with St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body but strongly agrees with Todd Salzman’s Sexual Person;
who supports the rights of gender-nonconforming people to make decisions based on their conscience and form legal partnerships (honestly, I wouldn’t use the word “marriage,” but I didn’t make the law);
who sees Courage as shame-based and destructive, Dignity as sentimental and unmoored, and wants a balanced teaching on same-sex behavior, perhaps like that the German bishops are formulating;
who supports the sensus fidei and the use of contraception (hey, if Amoris Laetitia can be heretical, so can Humanae Vitae);
who is a Democrat who votes for Tim Kaine and Joe Biden and sees Trump as the Antichrist and who will never, ever vote Republican;
who believes Anglican, Lutheran and other Protestant sacraments and orders to be valid, as per Declaration On The Way;
who believes women should be deacons and have positions of leadership in the Church (I am ambivalent about women in the priesthood–I understand the arguments as to why the priesthood is limited to men);
who supports amnesty for undocumented immigrants;
who is against the death penalty;
who wants comprehensive background checks for gun sales;
who supports universal health care as a pro-life issue;
who is against nuclear war and believes someone who votes for a candidate or who supports an elected official who threatens nuclear war has committed a mortal sin;
and who sees global warming as a more fundamental life issue than abortion since ALL unborn children will die if they don’t have a planet to be born on.
Each of these stands I have taken can be defended using Catholic thinking and Catholic resources, even if I don’t agree with every Catholic. Do all Catholics have to fall in line with either a conservative or liberal ideology? I would like to think the Holy Spirit created a Church in which people with a wide range of opinions can balance each other out with dialogue. I got tired of being labeled a heretic and having conservatives try to pressure me to leave. So, I left. Is there a way back? Which one of these statements keeps me being Catholic?
who understands the moral theology of Amoris Laetitia and embraces it;
who believes in the seamless garment of life and wants to build the kind of social safety net which makes abortion unnecessary rather than fruitlessly try to make it illegal;
who strongly disagrees with St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body but strongly agrees with Todd Salzman’s Sexual Person;
who supports the rights of gender-nonconforming people to make decisions based on their conscience and form legal partnerships (honestly, I wouldn’t use the word “marriage,” but I didn’t make the law);
who sees Courage as shame-based and destructive, Dignity as sentimental and unmoored, and wants a balanced teaching on same-sex behavior, perhaps like that the German bishops are formulating;
who supports the sensus fidei and the use of contraception (hey, if Amoris Laetitia can be heretical, so can Humanae Vitae);
who is a Democrat who votes for Tim Kaine and Joe Biden and sees Trump as the Antichrist and who will never, ever vote Republican;
who believes Anglican, Lutheran and other Protestant sacraments and orders to be valid, as per Declaration On The Way;
who believes women should be deacons and have positions of leadership in the Church (I am ambivalent about women in the priesthood–I understand the arguments as to why the priesthood is limited to men);
who supports amnesty for undocumented immigrants;
who is against the death penalty;
who wants comprehensive background checks for gun sales;
who supports universal health care as a pro-life issue;
who is against nuclear war and believes someone who votes for a candidate or who supports an elected official who threatens nuclear war has committed a mortal sin;
and who sees global warming as a more fundamental life issue than abortion since ALL unborn children will die if they don’t have a planet to be born on.
Each of these stands I have taken can be defended using Catholic thinking and Catholic resources, even if I don’t agree with every Catholic. Do all Catholics have to fall in line with either a conservative or liberal ideology? I would like to think the Holy Spirit created a Church in which people with a wide range of opinions can balance each other out with dialogue. I got tired of being labeled a heretic and having conservatives try to pressure me to leave. So, I left. Is there a way back? Which one of these statements keeps me being Catholic?
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