Does Paul Ryan Threaten the Common Good?
An organization called Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good came out on October 9 with what it announced was a “Catholic Call to Protect the Endangered Common Good.” It is entitled “On All of Our Shoulders,” and it has no less than 157 signatories describing themselves as “Catholic theologians, academics, and ministers concerned for our nation and for the integrity of the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.” The document purports to be a response to what it characterizes as a grave crisis—what it calls a “tipping point,” in fact—in the life of the nation. However, it turns out to be largely a critique of some of the positions of Congressman Paul Ryan, the Republican candidate for vice president.
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...the identity of some of the signatories raises very serious questions regarding their implied claim to be “defenders” of Catholic teaching. What can we think when any such as the following come forward as champions of Catholic teaching?
• Richard Gaillardetz, a theologian who told a Los Angeles religious education congress that—contrary to Lumen Gentium #25—Catholic magisterial teaching is not binding upon the faithful until it is ”received” by them,
• Elizabeth Johnson, C.S.J., a theologian who effectively mocked divine revelation by titling a book,She Who Is, and who has recently been the subject of an extended critique by the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Doctrine.
• Thomas Reese, S.J., the secular media’s favorite gadfly spokesman on things Catholic who once unsuccessfully tried to sabotage the Catechism of the Catholic Church and later had to be removed as the editor of the Jesuit magazine America, reportedly at the request of the newly elected Pope Benedict XVI himself.
• Sandra M. Schneiders, a Sister, Servant of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, recipient of many honors from the liberal theological establishment, who in her book Beyond Patching, declared the Bible to be intrinsically sexist, so flawed as to be indeed beyond patching, and hence in need of a new feminist hermeneutic.
Such as these are somehow the defenders of the integrity of Catholic teaching? Similar question could also be raised about others on the list of the 157 signatories to the Call to Protect the Endangered Common Good. But the common good deserves better.
Read a “Catholic Call to Protect the Endangered Common Good.”:
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