One of the Episcopal Church’s besetting sins is the tendency to take a purely social-justice agenda, supported by purely human activism, and clothe it in religious-sounding words and phrases so that the Faithful think they are doing and supporting the work of God when all they are really doing is supporting a political platform. Sometimes the verbal gobbledegook gets so thick that it’s impossible to tell what the speaker means—if, indeed, he intends to mean anything in the first place.
One of our concerns before we became Catholic was that we’d be under Cardinal Archbishop Roger Mahoney, who is famous (infamous?) for being one of the most “progressive” bishops in the United States. Having spent far too long in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles under bishops who had (so far as we could tell) abandoned Christian orthodoxy in favor of social activism, we were in no mood to put ourselves under another such. We felt we’d be going from the frying pan to the fire.
Tonight I learned better.
January 22nd is the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade. On that day, the March for Life will take place in Washington, D.C.; and today there were similar events in San Francisco and in Dallas. Today was also the day for the Diocese of Los Angeles’ annual “Respect Life” mass, which took place at 6 PM this evening. Not being in Dallas or San Francisco or Washington, D.C., Jane and I packed up our kids and took them down to the Cathedral for mass.
And during the homily, I heard our archbishop speak clearly and plainly about the evils of abortion; about the human dignity of the unborn; about the gains made during the past year; and about the overwhelming power of, not social action, not political action, but the overwhelming power of prayer to change hearts and minds and attitudes. I heard no weasel words, no gobbledegook, and no purely human message dressed in God-talk. Instead, I heard a Catholic bishop teaching his flock, in the charism of his office.
I’ve no doubt that Cardinal Mahoney has his faults and his failings. He may well provide his critics with plenty of grist for their mills. But tonight, at least, he spoke as a bishop should. God bless him and keep him.
The View from the Foothills 
I’m a long way from Los Angeles, but this post illustrates one of the things I like about Catholicism. I’m a social justice kind of guy, but I want social justice motivated by the gospel, not just activism dreesed up by the gospel. The Catholic Church’s position on abortion is hard for the left in America today to hear, just as their position on the death penalty and immigration is a hard teaching for the right. The Catholic position on these issues seems a lot more consistent to me than the positions of Protestant denominations, whether they be conservative or liberal.
LikeLike
Me, I’ve always been a conservative; I’m finding the Church’s social teaching is challenging my preconceptions. It’s all the more comforting to me, consequently, to see that it is motivated by the Gospel.
LikeLike
I, too, am a recent convert to Catholicism, after spending most of my adult life as an Episcopalian. (Your description of the Episcopal addiction to double speak is spot on, by the way.)
I’m glad to hear about Cardinal Mahoney’s defense of the Church’s position on abortion. I’ve heard very little good spoken of him in the Catholic “blogosphere”.
While I don’t think that bishops should be entirely exempt from criticism, we should pray for them more than we criticize them.
LikeLike
I admit, I was expecting his support to be somewhat grudging and pro forma, with lots of equivocation, largely because of the all of the negative press he’s gotten. But on the contrary, very much on the contrary.
I agree with you about praying for our bishops; but until now, to my shame, I’ve been grudging and pro forma.
LikeLike