When I was a Catholic, I described myself as an "orthodox Catholic" rather than as a "conservative Catholic." It was a more accurate description of what I believed, and avoided the political connotation of "conservative" and "liberal." I meant by that term that I believed what the Catholic Church teaches is true. Now, all Catholics are supposed to believe that, but they don't, hence the need to distinguish among Catholics. True, being orthodox (having right belief) doesn't guarantee orthopraxy (right practice) -- see Law, Cardinal Bernard -- but it's an important baseline when it comes to evaluating parishes and schools for your kids, among other things. When you ask, "Is this Catholic school orthodox?", you're really asking, "Can I trust this school with the moral and religious education of my children."
Peter Steinfels at the NYT writes that the label "orthodox" can be problematic. Mollie Hemingway at GetReligion says yes, but it can also be simply an accurate description of a particular believer's stance towards the doctrines of her faith. What seems to rankle Steinfels is the clear implications in the fact that the antonym to "orthodox" is "heterodox." Dissenting Catholics do not want to be seen as heterodox. In fact, according to Kerry Kennedy, in a recent interview:
The religious right in this country commands so much political clout, and I'm wondering if you are trying to galvanize the religious left with your new book, "Being Catholic Now." No. This is not a political book. This is a book which includes Catholics ranging from Bill O'Reilly on the right to Bill Maher on the left to someone like Frank McCourt, who claims no longer to be Catholic. I was thinking another title could have been, "We Are All Good Catholics."
See, this is the big problem I have with progressive/liberal Catholics: you are not all "good Catholics" by any meaningful measure of belief (as distinct from practice; in that sense, the only good Catholics -- or Protestants or Orthodox -- are the saints). You can't possibly all be good Catholics. Bill Maher? Good grief, Frank McCourt doesn't even claim to be Catholic anymore! Only God can judge the quality of one's soul, of course, but insofar as what you profess to believe, Roman Catholicism offers a clear standard by which orthodoxy is measured. My sense is that at least within Catholicism (I can't speak for other traditions), people who don't like the modifier "orthodox" are people like Kerry Kennedy, who wish to normalize and indeed to valorize heterodoxy.
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Brendan Moran: The Pope can scream and yell all he wants, but that doesn't change reality.
Reality? What's that?
Besides, popes don't scream and yell. They're typically laid-back sort of guys who know they have history on their side. They can smile at the vagaries of scientific gnosis and can wait for philosophy and science to expend their puny intellectual brawn and sink into the effete frailty of sciolism. Revelation cannot be refuted, only denied.
If the Pope says you are not Catholic, you aren't Catholic. He will even send you a papal certificate similar to the one he sent Marty Luther.
Who will remember you when a legion of historians is writing the reign of Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict XVI? Your preposterous combox protests will go unheard in the vastness of the pleroma.
Per Rod: "My sense is that at least within Catholicism (I can't speak for other traditions), people who don't like the modifier 'orthodox' are people like Kerry Kennedy, who wish to normalize and indeed to valorize heterodoxy...[but]I fully expect that heaven has a vast contingent of Catholics who weren't fully orthodox."
I'm coming to join ya Elizabeth (grasps chest), this is the big one, Honey. Rod got it right!
Per sigaliris: "So, how does this work when the majority of Catholics have been defined by the Better Catholics as not good Catholics, in fact not really Catholics at all?"
Here's how it works, sig. You finally quit moaning about the fact that you don't want to be an orthodox Catholic (even though all your years of training and your conscience tell you you should), and either join the Episcopalians or bite the bullet and ask God for the faith to become an orthodox Catholic. How many years are you going to beat yourself up about this?
Per rombald: "The opposite of heterodox should be homodox"
If you don't mind, my friend, I'll do the homosocialist (i.e., the two major reasons why there are unorthodox Catholics) analogies around here. :-)
"Sorry, that's just how the world works in terms of language and meaning, whether people are open to it or not." BM
TR: You're statement could be seen as inherently meaningless. You say there is no objective reality in words. If so why do your statements about language mean anything or become "how the world works."
Or your statement is simply arrogant posturing. You on your lonesome do not get to decide how the world works in terms of language, meaning, or anything.
Now if what you're saying is that words mean what the consensus of speakers assign them to mean this is basically true, but this would still mean Pelosi can not assign herself the title of "good Catholic" because she is not a consensus of any speaker of any language. (Unless she's invented a language I don't know about or learned some nearly extinct language) True in some technical sense when she says "Good Catholic" she could be using some variant form of both those words. Like she could mean "good" as in healthy and "catholic" as in having a variety of tastes. Or she could be suffering from a form of aphasia where she says "Good Catholic" but means something totally different like "Italian American grandmother" or "Speaker of the House." I just don't think any of this is what's occuring. She is not using an obscure form of Esperanto, or suffering from a massive head injury, or what have you.
Oh Erin my dear, you say it so well! I hate this drippy song (Eagles Wings). I just can't stand it; you explain what's the matter with it.
As a member of a distinct minority, I should probably stay quiet, but I like Eagles Wings. I guess this means I have no musical taste despite my years of classical training or that I'm not a very good Catholic.
But hey, I let my children wear flip-flops to church, too. (Despite my mother-in-law's disdain). It's a good thing that God, not my fellow parishoners, will judge.
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