The Church in Politics: Abortion, Environment, and Being Partisan

Last updated on: July 23, 2019 at 4:05 pm By Jack Hartjes

Church-state separation is honored in political rhetoric and welcomed by the Church since the 1930’s. (See my series on Catholic Modern, especially here.) But it has always been a relative thing. States don’t allow just any kind of religious activity, and the Church does cross the line from moral education to politics, including and taking sides for or against a political party. Sometimes the latter is necessary, as in Chile during the oppressive Pinochet dictatorship. (See this post.) The American... Read more

Gender Theorists: Agreements and Criticisms and a Way Forward

Last updated on: February 27, 2023 at 7:56 am By Jack Hartjes

Responding to ‘Male and Female He Created Them’ – Part 3 The Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education “listens” to gender theorists. It does so without quoting any of them but only quoting Church documents. It seems to be hearing only the most radical of gender theorists. That makes it harder to find areas of agreement and easier to criticize. In “Male and Female He Created Them” the Congregation does find things to agree with and to criticize. The agreements are... Read more

Listening to Gender Theory, but Not Very Well

Last updated on: February 27, 2023 at 7:57 am By Jack Hartjes

Responding to ‘Male and Female He Created Them’ – Part 2 The Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education believes that listening is a necessary first step before reasoning and proposing. This is the professed methodology in their document responding to gender theory. In spite of this good intention, the listening step is where “Male and Female He Created Them” falls down. That seriously weakens the reasoning and proposing parts of the document. The document is weak in another respect, which I... Read more

The Congregation for Catholic Education and Forms of Catholic Modernism

Last updated on: February 27, 2023 at 8:02 am By Jack Hartjes

Responding to ‘Male and Female He Created Them’ – Part 1 A recent declaration from the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education makes gender theory a hot topic. I would like to put the Congregation’s views and proposals on gender in the context of my recent posts on the Catholic turn toward modernism. James Chappel in Catholic Modern argues that there have been two Catholic modernisms vying with each other. He labels them paternal and Fraternal Catholic modernism. The two forms... Read more

The New Catholic Left in the Turbulent 1960’s

Last updated on: June 17, 2019 at 10:48 am By Jack Hartjes

The last post in the series on Catholic Modern by James Chappel. The turbulent 1960’s included the sexual revolution, feminism, the civil rights movement, worker uprisings, and the identification and rejection of Western Imperialism. These secular movements did not leave the Church untouched. In fact, the Second Vatican Council tried to respond to Pope John XXIII’s call to “open the windows” of the Church to the world. In this last chapter of Catholic Modern, James Chappel identifies a part of the... Read more

Catholic Consensus in the Consumer Society of the ‘Long 1950’s’

Last updated on: June 17, 2019 at 10:49 am By Jack Hartjes

Despite the Catholic Church’s long rejection of materialism, it was a consumer society that brought opposing elements of the Church into a consensus in the “long 1950’s.” James Chappel, in Chapter 5 of Catholic Modern, dates this period from 1949 to 1964. Chappel’s theme concerns the two different ways Catholics pursued being modern since the 1930’s. In his terminology, “paternal modernists” were the majority, but “fraternal modernists” made up a significant minority. In previous chapters Chappel explores their differences on three intertwining issues – family, the economy,... Read more

Christian Democrats. The Center-Right Post-War Years

Last updated on: June 17, 2019 at 10:49 am By Jack Hartjes

Individual Catholics came through the Second World War in powerful positions in political parties that were, in name or in spirit, Christian Democrats. They argued opposite sides of major political issues. Some pushed strongly for federalism and world government that would include Communist countries. Others took up the anti-Communist banner and argued for strong nation-states and military preparedness. The shape of the world since then shows which side one out in the end. Jacques Maritain – his influence and ultimate failure – occupies the center... Read more

Pluralism, Anti-Fascism, and Fraternal Catholic Modernism, 1929-1944

Last updated on: June 17, 2019 at 10:49 am By Jack Hartjes

In the period between the two world wars, the Catholic Church was becoming modern, accepting its place in a secular state, learning to cooperate with different groups against common enemies. But all that was compatible with a deep strain of anti-Semitism. How then did some Jews find themselves attracted to the Catholic Church, working closely with Catholics, and even becoming Catholic? Under the large tent that is the Church, a majority were staunchly anti-communist and associated Jews with communism. But anti-fascism was another strong movement. It promoted pluralism, a... Read more

Anti-Communism, Human Rights, and Paternal Catholic Modernism, 1929-1944

Last updated on: June 17, 2019 at 10:49 am By Jack Hartjes

The years from 1929 to the end of the Second World War were disastrous ones for Europe. The Great Depression, the rise of dictators in several European countries, extreme nationalism and worship of blood and soil, six million Jews slaughtered in concentration camps—if this is any indication, then the modern Western world is both chaotic and demonic. Yet it was during these years and through movements of anti-Communism and anti-Fascism that the Catholic Church learned how to be modern. Catholic... Read more