Liberal and Conservative: The Issues.

Some like to critisize the terms "liberal" and "conservative" as too simplistic. I think these terms are about as good as we can do to describe the differences in our church today. It is a sprectum, fo course, and probably a majority don't fit exactly in one camp or the other. Accepting this, let me make some observations on the differences.

Three areas seem to be in contention between the two groups: Liturgy, 'social' gospel vs. personal piety, and clericalism vs. the laity. I notice these differences daily on the blogs and in the media. For example, yesterday a came across a new Pew survey dealing with the attitudes of Christian churches in America. It showed to me a rather surprising trend. Catholics seem to be less in step with the 'official' philosophy of their church than most other groups. This promted the Archbishop of Denver to say that the Church needs to 'evangelize' its own members, because , he suggested, a high percentage of Catholics do not understand the teachings of the Church. I see two possible 'takes' on his comment. Maybe he is right. Or maybe the laity know more than the good Archbishop thinks, but find some of the teachings hard to accept. An example of the latter is the Church teaching on contraception. The official Church position on the issue is that the use of contraceptives is a serious sin, a grave violation of the natural law, a violation of God's command etc. Those familiar with this issue point out there is little, if any, distinction between catholics and other church members on this issue---a great majority of all religious people do not accept the catholic position on this issue. Even within the Church hierarchy there is wide differences. As we all know, a commission coming after Vatican 2, a commission made up of clerics recommended the position of the Church be modified. This was turned down by Paul 6.

Beyond this difference in the Church on this issue, is also a division between the hierarchy and the laity . The emphasis of Vatican2 on the role of the laity is obviously not palitable to many in the clergy. On a prominent catholic blog the conservative catholics were incensed over what they called the "anti-clericalism" of church members today. I was told by several of the people on this blog to"stay in my place" and not toy with questioning 'official' church positions. The Church is not a democracy, was a constant refrain, and my duty was to accept what the hierarchy said.

In my own diocese, our nice but very conservative bishop, has announced in a lenghty essay. the responsibility to "adopt a priest." He clearly states that priests are closer to God than lay persons, and we should recognize their unique position. Again, the effort the reassert the supremacy of clerics over the laity.

I will have more to say on the issues I have mentioned in this post in the days ahead and kook forward to any comments pro or con. Jack