This post is really easy to write, as somebody else has done the work! John Gehring has written a fantastic piece, detailing the many ways in which Santorum’s views deviate from Church teachings on so many important issues.
But I admit to grudging respect for Santorum. He is well-intentioned, and sincerely believes what he says – a vast improvement over the corporate ghoul that is currently the Republican front-runner. But I fear that he is just as influenced by the flawed theology of much of American evangelicalism than he is by his own church.
Faced with such a litany of deviation, our friends on the right would normally dub him a “dissident Catholic”, a “cafeteria Catholic”, or a “Catholyc”. But of course, we know that is not going to happen – because it’s not really Catholic teachings they care most about, is it?