“Protestantism, whether primitive or modern, Lutheran or Calvinist, orthodox or liberal, generally occurs as a religion of antitheses. Either rites or morals, authority or liberty, faith or works, nature or grace, prayer or sacrifice, bible or pope, Christ the savior or Christ the judge, sacraments or the religion of the spirit, mysticism or prophecy… but Catholicism does not accept these dichotomies and refuses to be merely Protestantism turned inside out. The splendid name of Catholic, that has been so fitting translated as ‘comprehensive’ a term ‘as welcome as outstretched arms, far-reaching like the works of God, a term of wonderful richness, filled with echoes of the infinite’, has not always been perfectly grasped even by the Church’s own children. Instead of signifying, in addition to a watchful orthodoxy, the expansion of Christianity and the fullness of the Christian spirit, it came to represent, for some, a sort of preserve, a system of limitations: the profession of Catholicism became linked with a distrustful and factious sectarian spirit.”
— Henri de Lubac, S.J. (1947), Catholicism: Christ and the Common Destiny of Man, Ignatius Press.
If this was true in the Europe of Lubac’s time, it is even more the case in early twenty-first century America, making the last century’s greatest theologian appear highly prescient. For this sectarian approach to Catholicism is alive and well among those Catholics most influenced by the political evangelicals who (falsely) describe themselves as conservative. They have imbibed a very Protestant way of engaging the world, leading to an “us versus them” mentality which is utterly opposed to the universality of Catholicism. As I’ve voted many times (as has the Vatican), the Calvinist spirit is dominant in American culture and American foreign policy. And the way the modern political debate is framed, as a great dualistic battle between the opposing camps of “conservative” and “liberal” (never mind that both sides are actually quite close to to each from a Catholic perspective) is a direct result of this Protestant mindset.
As Lubac notes, this spirit of sectarian dichotomy has always enticed Catholics. And today, we have a group of self-appointed “guardians of orthodoxy” that see the world in narrow, politicized, terms. It’s not like in the past when Catholic distinctiveness was worn as a badge of honor in an anti-Catholic culture. For today, many Catholics have made common cause with the old bastions of anti-Catholicism and have fully integrated into the secular culture. But, ironically, the sectarian spirit has morphed into another form of beast– not surprising, as Catholics became closer to the political Protestant mindset. For today, doctrinal orthodoxy is often equated with loyalty to a political cause, a faction, an economic system, or a nation state– so much so that Church teachings that contradict this unquestioned loyalty are simply cast aside; after all, theirs is a very Protestantized, individualist, form of Catholicism.
An example: those who claim that a fixed number of “non-negotiable” principles must bind the consciences of Catholics in all circumstances when it comes to voting. And of course, those “principles” tilt heavily in a sectarian direction, and have no basis in Catholic moral teaching. I find it highly interesting that some of the most vigorous apologists for this sectarian mindset are a subset of evangelical converts– people who carried the entire weight of their political baggage along their roads to conversion. But this factiousness is everywhere, and it grows stronger as the political discourse cheapens. Just see here for an example of what I am talking about.
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