Why do dissenters remain in the Catholic Church?

It's a very common question. After all, if a Catholic really thinks the Catholic Church is outdated, backwards, misogynist, homophobic, reactionary, and even evil, why insist on being "Catholic"? Dr. James Hitchcock, longtime professor of history at Saint Louis University, offers some helpful insights in the second part of his essay, "The Failure of Liberal Catholicism"; if you've not yet read it, here is an excerpt:

Why discontented liberals remain in a Church that continuously frustrates them is not easy to understand; it is not because of a belief in the Church’s divine character. They sometimes cite the Eucharist as their reason for staying, but logically their principles require them to believe that Protestant eucharists are equally valid.

Being a Catholic is reduced to the lowest common denominator, as by an NCR reader who explains it thus—“Relationships that I simply could not continue in a practical way with the hundreds of people over all of these years,” an explanation that could apply equally to professional organizations, alumni clubs, or groups of hobbyists. Another reader attends a “progressive” parish, “not because I need Catholicism to grow spiritually, but because this inclusive community nourishes me in ways I have not found elsewhere.”

A feminist declares that “women don’t need the Vatican. We don’t need the bishops. That is the real threat.” But in fact they do, because their identity is forged in obsessive rebellion against Church authority.

The repeated charge that those within the hierarchy are power-hungry is to a great extent an expression of the liberals’ own obsession with power, which is a major reason why they remain in the Church. A woman recounted in the NCR that she had not attended church for a long time, until another feminist “helped me see the power in greeting people before Mass.”

Most feminists could not offer a coherent theology of the priesthood, but they nevertheless demand to be ordained. One female “bishop” says that while “the Catholic Church is toxic to women…it is vitally important to my credibility that I be recognized as Roman Catholic. I ordain women to the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church. Yes, I am excommunicated, but I remain specifically and intentionally in the church.”

An “expert” on the laity, the former Jesuit Paul Lakeland, charges that the Church “infantilizes” people (“it’s a rub-your-nose-in-term and that’s why I used it”), by which he seems to mean not that their religious and moral lives are childish but that they have failed to “take ownership of the universal church.” Power alone matters, and Lakeland feels justified in demeaning those who do not grasp that fact.

In an open letter, the Australian priest Eric Hodgens complains that outstanding men like himself were kept from the offices they deserved, while promotion went to those who “sold their souls for advancement.”

Liberal Catholicism is replaying the history of the Reformation of the 16th century, beginning with calls for legitimate reform and ending in innumerable divisions. But whereas Luther and Calvin repudiated those who moved too far too fast, the concepts of heresy and schism are meaningless in the incoherent liberal Catholic ecclesiology, where each person’s judgment is held to be sacred, where people are Catholics simply because they claim to be.

Read the entire piece and also Part One of the essay, both on www.CatholicWorldReport.com.

Comments

[Dale Price]

The grumbling cynic in my says "Because nobody does news stories about the UCC."

But that's unfair for most of them. Maybe for a small number, the Catholic label/podium is essential. I think Hitchcock is right about the rank and file dissenter: they stay because they privilege subjective experience over conflicting truth claims. And obviously they know there's a conflict--that's why they yell and scream. But in the final analysis, the conflict doesn't matter.

Whereas with orthodox Catholics at a dissenting parish, it's the opposite--truth claims have priority, so they shake the dust off and leave.

[peter l]

Ruff laments that, “When I think of Our Lord’s teaching…I weep.” Letters to the NCR often begin, “My heart goes out…,” “I weep with sorrow….” McBrien reports on a parish staff “who are hurting terribly” and of a woman “who darted out of the church during a recent homily—in tears,” the priest’s offense being that he restored traditional devotions, urged people to go to confession, and covered the statues in purple during Passiontide. (“The parish is grieving.”)

Regarding the above,this is shocking to me,this surely is one of the Priest's duties.Whatever next,will the Parishioners run from the Pew's when asked to Baptize their children?.

I did not know this was all going on,my Parish seems oblivious to all this Liberalism and thank God.With "Catholics" like these,who needs enemies?.

Very informative,thank you.

[AnneFlint]

I will be frank: I have a great deal of trouble on some doctrine the Church preaches. Most specifically, I do not see why it is the Church's business to interfere in gay relationships. I also have trouble with our acceptance of some married priest while still forbidding others.
Yet, despite all of my troubles, I say the Apostles' Creed at every Mass without lying. I believe every word I say and I pray to God I always will. I attend Mass every Sunday and do my best to follow the word of God. I hope that someday that the Church and I will come to an understanding. Until that day, I will continue to believe as I believe and attend Mass without fear.

[Roberta Young]

I think the reason liberal Catholics don't join the Anglican or Episcopal Churches is that if they leave the Church, rather than internally reform it into becoming another version of the Anglican Church, it would mean that the Catholic Church would continue to exist, and they don't want it to exist at all. Despite their claims of "tolerance", they can't tolerate the orthodox teachings of the Church continuing to exist. I loved the line in Hitchcock's essay "As the history of modern Protestantism and Judaism shows, the principal achievement of liberal religion is to persuade people that they do not need religion at all." As a liberal agnsotic for 25 years, I would have been most sympathetic to the Anglican Church. I would have wanted the Catholic Church to ordain women, to change its teachings about abortion, etc. But if it had changed its teachings, I still wouldn't have gone to Church. I would have praised the fact that it had "joined the 20th century", but it would still have been irrelevant to me. When I regained my faith, I was so grateful that the Church didn't change its teachiings to suit the times. I wanted a Church that would have its foundations on bedrock, not the shifting sands of popular opiniona nd cultural trends.

[LJ]

I think the answer is similar to the answer to the question, "why is it that the most vitriolic and outrageous statements in the theological debate between Catholics and Protestants come from the Protestant side?"

The identity of the Protestant is bound up in large measure with what it is that they are protesting. If the Catholic Church ceased to exist, it would rob them of much of their identity, whether they realize it or not.

In like manner, the hard-core dissenter cannot leave because their self-identity is bound up in their dissent. If they left, they would be just another ex-Catholic and nobody would think twice about them.

[Nancy D.]

"Why do dissenters remain in The Catholic Church?"

Because of the lack of a charitable anathema, dissent is allowed to exist within His Church thus causing chaos and confusion.