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{"id":94112,"date":"2015-09-14T00:27:56","date_gmt":"2015-09-14T07:27:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=94112"},"modified":"2015-09-10T13:48:40","modified_gmt":"2015-09-10T20:48:40","slug":"how-francis-challenges-the-catholic-left","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/09\/how-francis-challenges-the-catholic-left.html","title":{"rendered":"How Francis Challenges the Catholic Left"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Michael Sean Winters has an interesting piece on how Francis is also not ignorable by the Catholic Left.<\/a><\/p>\n

This is part of why I keep insisting that conservative (of the Tradition, I mean, not of American Movement \u201cConservatism\u201d) Catholics should drop their fetishistic support for GOP shibboleths like the death penalty, gun zealotry, opposition to a living wage, support for torture, international bellicosity, contempt for refugees, and a host of other junk that they say is negotiable and \u201cprudential\u201d but, by their actions, show are absolutely non-negotiable core values while using the unborn as human shields to rationalize such commitments. \u00a0There is nothing in the Catholic Tradition binding conservatives to such commitments and plenty urging them to drop such commitments. \u00a0That\u2019s why Francis scares them so badly.<\/p>\n

But Francis, precisely because he (like his predecessors) *does* recognize the full-orbed teaching of the Church on the dignity of all human life and therefore does grant the Left\u2019s points on such matters (and others), makes it extremely hard for the Left to get away with its blind spots and rejections of the Church\u2019s teaching that sound too much like Movement Conservatism for the average Reporter<\/em> reader. \u00a0He speak and lives their lingo, and so has leverage to urge them to be consistent. \u00a0Only Nixon can go to China.<\/p>\n

Now the conservative fear, of course, is that if you grant an inch to the Catholic Left, you will somehow be cheated. \u00a0You will concede something and they will concede nothing. \u00a0But this is silly. \u00a0You aren\u2019t granting anything to the Catholic Left. \u00a0You are granting that you will listen to the Holy Spirit speaking through the Magisterium, even when it makes you feel uncomfortable because He sounds like a leftist to your fallen ear. \u00a0And when you do that, guess what? \u00a0You will be a more obedient Catholic, while the Catholic who hides behind the accusation that opponents of abortion are all a pack of hypocrites suddenly has no place to hide and is himself shown to be a hypocrite. \u00a0You lose your life and find it, now being in a position (as Francis already is) to demand concessions from the Left if they do not, themselves, want to be embarrassed by their hypocrisy.<\/p>\n

Francis\u2019 message is simple and oh-so-hard: Be consistent.<\/a> \u00a0Be Catholic.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s do it. \u00a0We can, you know.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"