Catholic, Liberal and Conservative

Marc Barnes explains.  Excerpts:

...When we look at the desire of the Christ, at his heartfelt cry to his Father before he delievered himself up to die, the silliness of a liberal/conservative split within the Church becomes apparent:

I pray also for those who will believe in me through [the disciple's] message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17)

Christ wants us to be one, truly one. This desire was a desire important enough to be his death prayer. Thus whenever we see a false division in the Church, our impulse, flowing from our love for Christ, should be to make it whole.

For decades I prayed that the Catholic Church would evolve, but not anymore. Now I’m holding out for a schism, instead. We’ll be the Social Justice Catholic Church and they can be the Conservative Catholic Church.

Or not, whatever. Saw the Bride in half. This, in a phrase, is the Americanization of the Universal Church, similar in essence to that terrifying moment when the tourist asks the Parisian to point him in the direction of the nearest Burger King...

There's a lot more where that came from, and it's a good series of points. The truly, deeply Catholic on both sides of the political aisle are not at home in their respective parties, but are truly strangers and sojourners upon the earth.