E.J. Dionne on Remaining a (Liberal) Catholic

E.J. Dionne

Washington Post op-ed columnist E.J. Dionne writes from the perspective of a Catholic liberal, which is what I also am. A number of his columns this year have made specific reference to his religion, as when he was critical of the Obama Administration's original decision to force Catholic institutions to pay for contraception coverage in their employees' health plans. (Mr. Dionne liked the ensuing compromise which will have insurers pay for the coverage instead.)

Mr. Dionne not long ago wrote in some detail about how his politics and his religion intertwine. In "I’m not quitting the church," he wrote in contradiction to a full-page ad sponsored by Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) and appearing recently in The Post urging Catholics on the political left to "Please, Exit en Mass" — meaning leave the church entirely.

The ad said:

If you think you can change the church from within — get it to lighten up on birth control, gay rights, marriage equality, embryonic stem-cell research — you're deluding yourself. By remaining a “good  Catholic,” you are doing “bad” to women’s rights. You are an enabler. And it’s got to stop.

To which Mr. Dionne responded:

I’m sorry to inform the FFRF that I am declining its invitation to quit. It may not see the Gospel as a liberating document, but I do, and I can’t ignore the good done in the name of Christ by the sisters, priests, brothers and lay people who have devoted their lives to the poor and the marginalized.

And on women’s rights, I take as my guide that early feminist Pope John XXIII. In Pacem in Terris, his encyclical issued in 1963, the same year Betty Friedan published “The Feminine Mystique,” Pope John spoke of women’s “natural dignity.” ... 

... A thoughtful friend recently noted that carrying a child to term is an act of overwhelming generosity. For nine months, a woman gives her body to another life, not to mention the rest of her years. Might the bishops consider that their preaching on abortion would have more credibility if they treated women in the church, including nuns, with the kind of generosity they are asking of potential mothers? They might usefully embrace a similar attitude toward gay men and lesbians. 

Too many bishops [today] seem in the grip of dark suspicions that our culture is moving at breakneck speed toward a demonic end. Pope John XXIII, by contrast, was more optimistic about the signs of the times.

“Distrustful souls see only darkness burdening the face of the earth,” he once said. “We prefer instead to reaffirm all our confidence in our Savior who has not abandoned the world which he redeemed.” The church best answers its critics when it remembers that its mission is to preach hope, not fear.

Hear, hear!