I've been reading Jody Bottum's well-written, impassioned essays about Barack Obama, Notre Dame, abortion and Catholic culture -- see here and then here -- and I've found myself wanting to agree with him, but they've struck me as having a major flaw: this Catholic culture Jody thinks that Notre Dame and others have departed from really doesn't exist. Would that it did! In fact, as the data show, Catholics are every bit as mainstream American as anybody in their habits and opinions. I agree with Jody that it's offensive that a Catholic university should award an honorary law degree to a lawmaker, even the US president, who favors abortion. But come on, most Catholics voted for Obama. The president of Notre Dame, and other Catholic schools, ought to fear God and anguish over whether or not they're departing from authoritative Catholic teaching, and by so doing leading the faithful away from the truth. But they shouldn't fear that they are out of step with American Catholic culture as it actually exists. They very well know what they're doing.
But don't take it from me. Patrick Deneen, an actual orthodox Catholic who teaches at Georgetown, has written a magnificently bleak but truthful analysis of this situation. He too wishes Jody were correct. But the facts say otherwise. Excerpts:
I admire and agree with much of what Jody writes, but I fear I have to disagree with him over this analysis. In my view, the singular focus upon abortion as THE issue over which conservative Catholics will brook no divergence and around which we are called to rally reveals, to my mind, not evidence of robust Catholic culture as much as its absence. It seems to me that - along with the opposition to gay marriage - this issue represents the last stand, the inner-most wall barely keeping the hordes from overrunning the sanctum. The ferocity over this issue - and this issue almost to the exclusion of nearly every other issue that might be part of a rich fabric of Catholic culture - suggests to me that Catholic culture, where it existed, has been largely routed. And, in fact, it suggests further that it is precisely for this reason that this issue has become largely defined politically - and not culturally - with an emphasis on the way that the battle over abortion must be won or lost at the ballot box (and, by extension, Supreme Court appointments).Most Catholics have long ago ceased to live in a Catholic culture, per se. I would go so far as to surmise that many of the most vociferous opponents of abortion - ones lined up in this particular battle - do not by and large live in particularly Catholic cultures, so much as occasionally gather with like-minded Catholics at various locations (Church, a conference, a retreat) and otherwise live suffused in a decidedly non-Catholic culture. Most of us - Catholic or non-Catholic - live by default in THIS culture, whatever we would call it - liberal, modern, American, global, polyglot, anti-culture. THIS culture is decisively a "culture of choice." Even those who would seek to inhabit a Catholic culture do so as a matter of individual choice - a lifestyle option. But this is not a Catholic culture as we might historically and traditionally understand such a culture - where that culture (as with any culture) shapes and forms your worldview, largely unbeknownst to you and without prior consent or choice on your part.
If our culture were truly Catholic (or, one might say, traditionally Christian), Deneen says it would look something like this:
A Catholic culture would inculcate a certain kind of character: one of respect, self-restraint, responsibility, humility, thrift, moderation, self-sacrifice. Courtship and marriage would be encouraged among the young. Divorce would be well-nigh non-existent. Such a culture would not valorize materialism, but understand that things of this world is not to be wholly embraced. At the heart of our culture would not be - as Jody suggests - opposition to abortion - which is, after all, negative - but rather the things that abortion is not: family, Church, community, memory, tradition, continuity of past, present and future. Culture is affirmation, not simply denial.
Culture is affirmation, not simply denial. Discuss.
On one point, I would slightly dissent from Prof. Deneen. Read past the jump if you're interested.
Patrick writes:
A culture - Catholic or otherwise - that regarded abortion as well-nigh unthinkable would be profoundly different than the one we inhabit. First, such a culture would foster a strong sense of place. This is one of the central features of Catholicism, in strong distinction to Protestantism: we are members of parishes, which are located where one lives, and not according to the choice of minister or music or fellow churchgoers.
I wonder if that's really true. Typically, the most engaged orthodox Catholics I knew when I was one of them picked and chose parishes based on whether or not the teaching there was solid. They (we) wanted our children brought up in the Catholic faith, and we knew that you couldn't trust priests today, or lay authorities in the parish, to teach Catholicism. (Incidentally, many engaged liberal Catholics also parish-shop). I would defend this parish-hopping from an orthodox RC perspective because preserving the faith is more important than being faithful to one's geographical parish (I knew I was headed into choppy waters when my firstborn became old enough to understand what the priest was saying during mass, and I would have to explain to him that what Father said is not what the Church teaches; it bothered me that I was having to teach him suspicion of Church authority before he'd even learned to trust it). My point here is simply that the decay in the fidelity to magisterial Catholicism on the part of the institutional Catholic Church in America has contributed to the breakup of Catholic culture by putting orthodox Catholics, who no doubt would prefer to go to their geographical parish, as is the norm, in the position of having to parish-shop to obtain what is their right: the Catholic faith, faithfully proclaimed and lived.
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One problem with parish-shopping is that it creates, effectively, segregated churches. Our society is already self-segregating along political lines in so many other areas, from the radio people listen to to the stores they shop in.
If people prayed (and ate doughnuts, and chatted) with a more politically mixed crowd, it might cut down on both the sanctimonious certainty that their side had all the answers and the rather cartoon-like view that they have of the other side.
People could learn a thing or two. Make some common causes. I could see that advancing the glory of God.
I see that public defender has said everything I was saying, only faster and better.
To expand my point a little, I heard Dreher's very thoughtful interview on NPR's Speaking of Faith. Dreher said that he admired Obama for many things, but that Obama's position on abortion made it impossible for Dreher to vote for him. My should McCain care about what Dreher (or others with Dreher's beliefs) think about any other topic. He had your vote locked. You became politically irrelevant.
That's why Republicans won't do anything more than humor the crunchy cons and why Catholic officials are less and less politically relevant. I think that's bad for American politics. Contrarian moral voices are good for democracy. But that's also an unfortunate reality.
In 2004 I wrote something in. Refusing to vote for the Democrat does not automatically mean voting Republican.
I have never been to this site before, and I will come back. Thank you Mr Dreher for a great and thoughtful article.
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