extreme Catholic 

As I get up to speed with the other Catholic bloggers in 2009, I will mention a few blogs I have read and some comments I have posted.

Unam Sanctam presented what I thought was a false dichotomy.

It is common enough to lay out here and I also have some space to explain where I am in the middle of this.

On one hand, there's Catholic Monarchism -- from Constantine to Blessed Charles I, Emperor of Austria. This is the ideal government is one that it Catholic from the top down and able to establish the Catholic Church as a state religion, and to encumber or even suppress the spread and practice of non-Catholic religions. When it comes to papal observations I take the insights of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict VI over that of Pope Pius IV who, in office from 1559 to 1565, would know nothing but monarchy. Excessive zeal -- seeking a short cut to establishing the Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven -- is its driving force.

On the other hand, there is spiritual sloth -- Indifferentism, Syncretism, false Ecumenism -- it has many names. I don't think it's important to make a major argument against this now, just identify it.

There's a big middle in the middle of the two. When I am, I am a big believer in the principle of subsidiarity and accountability. Small, visible local charities -- where people can give up all three: time, talent, and treasure. Uncoupling it all -- creates two evils: powerful politicians who control the flow of other people's money and a class of people becoming dependent on the government.

I am likely the first (and perhaps only) blogger to declare admiration for both Dorothy Day and for Cardinal Spellman. In many ways, the inability for these two to work out some accommodation is the legacy we have contend with today.

The sloth aspect of it comes in when you believe that you need to eliminate war, poverty, economic instability, and deadly disease before you can share the gospel. Those four, you might recognize as the Four Horsemen of Rev 6. The right sort of balance between the corporal works and spiritual works of mercy is "DOMINUS JESUS" written by Pope Benedict when he was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Labels: blogs, monarchism, social justice, syncretism

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 7:43 PM   Permalink  

I believe in Christian and Catholic exceptionalism: Only the Catholic Church possess the fullness of truth in God's revelation. The search is over. Jesus has called us to the way, the truth, and the life.

Any other way is at at least partially false or incomplete.Those that "reconsider Christian practices" do so at the peril of their immortal soul.

Catholic World News: Two Jesuits, two ways

Labels: church, syncretism

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 4:18 PM   Permalink  

Today's Guest Theologian

Will Smith on MSNBC

“I was introduced, [to] it [Scientology] by Tom and I’m a student of world religion,” Smith said. “I was raised in a Baptist household, I went to a Catholic school, but the ideas of the Bible are 98 percent the same ideas of Scientology, 98 percent the same ideas of Hinduism and Buddhism.

But that adds up to 294 percent. Hey! I said he was a theologian and not a mathematician.

Labels: celebrity, guest theologian, syncretism

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:48 PM   Permalink