Aug 12 Wed
As in politics, are there different categories of Catholics?
We must reject some ideological categories that some often use to divide by classifying the faithful within the Church. Yet one is either Catholic or one is not. There is no third option.
Certain terms such as “conservative” and “progressive” have become established in everyday language. So, apparently, there are all kinds of Catholics: left-wing Catholics; right-wing Catholics; reformist Catholics; progressives; reactionaries; traditionalists; progressivists, and so on. A particularly clever neologism is “different Catholics.”
It is the Magisterium that correctly interprets the faith, not a group of people who proclaim: “We are the Church!” The Church’s faith is the criterion and defining characteristic of a Catholic. We call heresies all deviations from it. Instead of “a different kind of Catholic,” it would be more accurate to speak of “no longer Catholic!” The views of these people, skilled in sophistry, should be identified for what they are: heretical.
Just because something is labeled “Catholic” doesn’t necessarily mean it’s “Catholic” on the inside. When it comes to yogurt, when we say it has a “sting,” we mean that it has already gone bad. Similarly, additional attributes attached to “Catholic” reveal that the corresponding interpretation of the faith or practice of the faith is in fact corrupt, erroneous, or false. What “Catholic” means in the full sense of the word requires no further clarification.
The Church stands for frankness here. “Let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ be ‘No.’ Anything beyond that comes from the evil one.” (Mt 5:37)
As far as the Church’s faith is concerned, there is no “diversity.” There is diversity in the rites and expressions through which this shared faith is expressed. But the Church’s faith in Germany is no different from that in Africa. In its essence, Faith is definite and indivisible, Catholic and apostolic. It is deepened over time, interpreted in a way that is appropriate for each era (as determined by the Magisterium), and handed down (apostolic tradition).
Thus, we speak of the depositum fidei, the deposit of faith, which does not change over time but is faithfully handed down from generation to generation by the Church’s Magisterium.
Peter is the rock, not the shifting sand dune that shifts with every (false) opinion. In this respect, all attributes intended to define what is “Catholic” remain suspect. Those who use them are, in reality, “dissidents.” They are “diverse,” to use a buzzword of our time, whose application in our context is just as wrong as in the one from which it originates.
Some want to belong, to be regarded as Catholic, but to redefine the Church’s faith from within according to their own preferences and to live it differently (“diverse”), e.g., as a homosexual couple. They do not openly admit that they do not share the Church’s faith; they want to change it, to live it in a “contemporary” way. And the world loves them. It loves only what belongs to it.
We must no longer go along with this and speak as Catholics who are simply Catholic. Either you are, or you aren’t! That’s what it’s all about!