My take on Mark Shea and Uncharitability

If The Shoe Doesn’t Fit

Now here is an important bit. If the shoe doesn’t fit, don’t put it on! Mark Shea (and, let’s be transparent, even I) will make a statement about an important truth, and many for whom the statement does not apply will try to use their own experience as a foil to the argument. Let’s take the Pro-Life discussion as an example. For four years I was the Director of the Respect Life office for the Diocese of Tulsa. I coordinated the Tulsa March for Life four times. I coordinated the 40 Days for Life vigil four times. I helped place 7 ultrasound machines in pregnancy resource centers around the Diocese. I hosted 3 sidewalk counselor trainings. I also kicked one group of “pro-lifers” off of diocesan property. Am I against the pro-life agenda? No. I have vigorously pursued it. But I also support the Seamless Garment theory.

Here is where many people get lost on the issue. The seamless garment does not mean that we ignore abortion, or treat abortion as if it is “just another issue.” The Church is fairly clear that it stands in a moral category that is different than other life issues. And you may legitimately decide that you need to be a “single-issue voter.” You are allowed to look at the outright evil in the platform of the Republican party and say “I do not support this evil, but because I view abortion as such an important issue, I will hold my nose and vote in spite of these evils.” What your Catholic faith does not allow (and here is where the seamless garment comes in) is for you to become so consumed with the issue of abortion that you vote a certain way, *AND* you resist the Church’s teaching on the dignity of the human person in every way that doesn’t line up with your favorite political structure. You are not granted the liberty to celebrate the tenets of evil found within your particular party affiliation.

Yes! You may say, “I’m voting for X because I want to see an end to abortion, and I repudiate his denigration of the immigrant, the poor, the minority, the downtrodden, etc.” and still be firmly justified within the doctrine of the Catholic Church. But you are being grossly inconsistent when you say “I’m voting for X because I want to see the end of abortion, and the Church should quit talking about Immigration and the poor and the minority, and our responsibility to the earth because it has nothing to do with faith and it’s stepping into the political arena.”

What Mark Shea rails against is religious inconsistency. Choose this day whom you will serve. Will your magisterium consist of political pundits, or popes and bishops?

If you are not the kind of traditionalist who looks for an excuse to deride the pope, then let his arguments roll off you like water off a ducks back. If you are not the kind of pro-lifer who spends all your time justifying war or punishing the poor, then don’t sweat it. If the shoe doesn’t fit, don’t wear it, and don’t pick up an offense.

But if the shoe does fit, form your conscience and examine it. Remember, as much as Mark Shea makes you mad, one day you’ll have to answer to God almighty for why you refused to listen to your bishop. As Ignatius of Antioch instructed the Smyrnæans

See that ye all follow the bishop, even as Christ Jesus does the Father… Let no man do anything connected with the Church without the bishop… Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude [of the people] also be; even as where Christ is, there does all the heavenly host stand by, waiting upon Him as the Chief Captain of the Lord’s might, and the Governor of every intelligent nature… That which seems good to [the bishop], is also well-pleasing to God, that everything ye do may be secure and valid.

May we all hear Christ through our bishops, and may we embrace the whole council of the Faith.

Now, Mark, because I know you’re reading this too, I leave you with the words of that other rabble-rouser, whom the people tried to kill over and over until they succeeded.

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingly power: proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching. For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine but, following their own desires and insatiable curiosity, will accumulate teachers and will stop listening to the truth and will be diverted to myths. But you, be self-possessed in all circumstances; put up with hardship; perform the work of an evangelist; fulfill your ministry.
— 2 Tim 4:1-5

Comfort the Afflicted, and Afflict the Comfortable.