What is Progressive Catholicism?

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I recently read a book by Mary Gordon. She identified herself as a progressive Catholic.

I have looked around on the web for a suitable definition but it only comes up with a Traditionalist Catholic that denies Vatican II. I don’t believe Ms. Gordon is a traditionalist, because she said she attends mass, but what would you say that “progressive” means in this context?

Thanks for any information you might have.
 
txjeff874 said:
I recently read a book by Mary Gordon. She identified herself as a progressive Catholic.

I have looked around on the web for a suitable definition but it only comes up with a Traditionalist Catholic that denies Vatican II. I don’t believe Ms. Gordon is a traditionalist, because she said she attends mass, but what would you say that “progressive” means in this context?

Thanks for any information you might have.
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It probably means she is not “conservative”, and so she doesn’t really accept the teachings of the magisterium of the Roman Pontiff, but instead dissents with them, perhaps also claiming that in doing so she is still a “good Catholic.”

However, this is what Paul VI taught on that…
The teaching Church does not invent her doctrines; she is a witness, a custodian, an interpreter, a transmitter. As regards the truth…she can be called conservative, uncompromising. To those who would urge her to make her faith easier, more in keeping with the tastes of the changing mentality of the times, she answers with the apostles, we cannot do so." (Paul VI, General Audience, 12 Jan 1972)
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Additionally, this is what John Paul II taught, regarding such
"It is sometimes reported that a large number of Catholics today do not adhere to the teaching of the Catholic Church on a number of questions…It has to be noted that there is a tendency on the part of some Catholics to be selective in their adherence to the Church’s moral teaching. It is sometimes claimed that dissent from the magisterium is totally compatible with being a “good Catholic,” and poses no obstacle to the reception of the Sacraments. This is a grave error.” (Pope John Paul II in his speech to the Bishops in 1987)
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itsjustdave1988 said:
It probably means she is not “conservative”, and so she doesn’t really accept the teachings of the magisterium of the Roman Pontiff, but instead dissents with them, perhaps also claiming that in doing so she is still a “good Catholic.”

However, this is what Paul VI taught on that…

Additionally, this is what John Paul II taught, regarding such
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👍👍👍
 
txjeff874 said:
I recently read a book by Mary Gordon. She identified herself as a progressive Catholic.

I have looked around on the web for a suitable definition but it only comes up with a Traditionalist Catholic that denies Vatican II. I don’t believe Ms. Gordon is a traditionalist, because she said she attends mass, but what would you say that “progressive” means in this context?

Thanks for any information you might have.
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progressive - Meaning “characterized by striving for change and innovation, avant-garde, liberal” (OED)
 
Progressive…I’ll buy anything that’s IN at the moment 🙂
 
What is “in and now”. But then…they forget a couple of things:
  1. Being faithful to the church
  2. Being obedient to the church and her teachings
  3. Being conciderate to everyone before them that has made our church what it is today.
And that is not being “In” or at “now” in time. It is just about being disobedient and disrespectful to the Lord.

Think about it and ask yourself: is it really worth that? Would you wanna gamble with your salvation like that?
 
I am not sure about this and I don’t wish to pass judgment on the author of the book but in my experience, “progressive” is simply an alternative or “nicer” word to use than liberal. And most liberals support things like gay marriage and abortion. Therefore, I would say that most Catholics who identify as “progressive” are simply those who refuse to submit to the authority of the Magisterium in all moral matters. Of course, they may also be “progressive” in matters of doctrinal theology as well but that is a whole other story.
 
Anyone describing themselves as a “progressive” Catholic should be considered as unfaithful to Christ and His Church.
**Modern Thoughts
Answer by Richard Geraghty (EWTN) on Nov-25-2005: **
“Priest and theological professors used to take an oath against the philosophy of modernism, which was a dangerous heresy especially at the beginning of the twentieth century. At the time important theological professors in seminaries were spreading this heresy in ways that it was not easy to detect. So Pope St. Pius the Tenth required all professors to take an oath against modernism. But in the fifties this heresy began to spread without many Catholic institutions being aware of it. In a subtle way modernism began to eat away at the Church from the inside, so to speak. Hence the great confusion in the Church today where many Catholics have lost their faith but do not seem to be aware of it. You see, then, that the heresy of modernism is not particularly the views of philosophers like Kant, Hegel and a host of others. One cannot mistake these thinkers for being any where near Catholicism. But one can mistake many Catholic professors for being loyal to the Church when indeed they are modernists. There is a move again to require Catholic philosophers and theologians to take something like an oath for staying loyal to the Magisterium. For the Catholic Church in American is being done into today, not by the press, not by the government, not by modern culture, but by Catholics who have used their positions for inventing a supposedly new and progressive Catholic Church.”

Though used by even some faithful Catholic writers, terms used for Catholics such as “conservative” and “liberal”, Catholic Left or Catholic Right, are nebulous and should be disregarded. The Catholic is faithful or unfaithful. The Catholic needs to think with the mind of the Church. On social issues and social teaching, we enter politics and economics and there may be avenues for using political terms such as left and right, conservative etc.
 
In today’s vernacular, “progressive” can mean many things. Many who call themselves progressive are essentially hiding the fact that they are a heretic. It would not be correct to say that all who are progressive do not adhere or teach the Catholic doctrine, however.

As a general rule, if you hear someone describing themselves as a progressive, be very aware of what they might be teaching.
 
Cardinal Ratzinger on the erroneous modern concept of “progress”…
Here we come in contact with the really critical issue of the modern age. The concept of truth has been virtually given up and replaced by the concept of progress. Progress itself “is” truth. But through this seeming exaltation, progress loses its direction and becomes nullified. ***For if no direction exists, everything can just as well be regress as progress. *** Truth and Conscience, by Cardinal Jospeph Ratzinger]
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Would the opposite of a “progressive Catholic” be a "regressive Catholic? Hmmm? No wonder labels don’t mean very much.
 
txjeff874 said:
I recently read a book by Mary Gordon. She identified herself as a progressive Catholic.

I have looked around on the web for a suitable definition but it only comes up with a Traditionalist Catholic that denies Vatican II. I don’t believe Ms. Gordon is a traditionalist, because she said she attends mass, but what would you say that “progressive” means in this context?

Thanks for any information you might have.
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Generally speaking a progressive catholicism is catholicism with a very nasty gnostic streak running through it.
 
Being “progressive” does NOT mean that a person does not accept the Magisterium of the Church. One can accept all of the teaching (current teachings, not everything that existed prior to Vatican II only) of the Church, and still be progressive.

In fact, far more “Conservatives” reject the Magisterium than progressives do. The SSPX, and other “conservatives” reject Vatican II, and virtually everything that has happened in the Church since Pope Pius X.

Some even go so far as to deny that the Popes since John XXIII were validly elected.

It is the conservatives that have repeatedly split from the Church, forming their own “true” churches, not the “progressives”.
 
this is a strange thread, people who call themselves progressive are claimed to be outside the church. I happen to agree with that statement, but what about us that wish to promote traditional catholicism, why are we called outdated?
It is the conservatives that have repeatedly split from the Church, forming their own “true” churches, not the “progressives”.
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Conservatives hold on to what has been taught since the early days of the church. Modernists wish to do away with those teachings and replace them with teachings that cater to the whims of the world and not to the wishes of our lord Christ. Its not conservatives who split from the church, its the modernists.
 
Califman831 said:
this is a strange thread, people who call themselves progressive are claimed to be outside the church. I happen to agree with that statement, but what about us that wish to promote traditional catholicism, why are we called outdated?

Conservatives hold on to what has been taught since the early days of the church. Modernists wish to do away with those teachings and replace them with teachings that cater to the whims of the world and not to the wishes of our lord Christ. Its not conservatives who split from the church, its the modernists.
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I’ll tell you Califman, I have encountered “Catholics” who accept all the teachings of the Church straight through Pope Pius XII and reject eveything from Vatican II onwards.

I have also encountered “Catholics” who reject everything prior to Vatican II and think the Catholic Church started at Vatican II.

Go figure!

As a Traditional Roman Catholic, I accept all of the Church’s teachings from St. Peter right down through to our present Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI.
 
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