What Happened to Filial Obedience?

Predictably, America magazine has endorsed Notre Dame's honoring of President Obama and disparaged the widespread Catholic protest. The contemptuous tone and the contradictory logic of the article are remarkable. The editorial describes the Cardinal Newman people and their associates (over 350,000 of us)as "self-appointed defenders of orthodoxy" and applies to them a quote from St. Augustine ("We are the only true Christians.") against the heretical Donatists.

But wait a minute! Bishop D'Arcy of South Bend is himself boycotting the graduation: Is he self-appointed! Seventy other bishops have protested: Are they self-appointed? Hardly: they are merely implementing the clear teaching of the American bishops that pro-legal-abortion leaders are not to be publically honored by Catholic institutions.

The editorial goes on to piece together statments and actions from Pope Benedict and the Vatican to create an impression that they share the genuinely open and tolerant attitude and would also endorse the invitation.

They must be kidding! Surely the editors know that then-Cardinal Ratzinger clearly directed our bishops to refuse communion to politicians who persist in advocacy of choice! Surely they recall St. Augustine in his hold-no-prisioner ferocity against a range of heresies (including the Donatists).

The article ends with the Jesuit magazine correcting and instructing the bishops about their mistaken instructions on political defense of innocent life. So, who are the "self-appointed" defenders of orthodoxy? The editors of Americaarrogantly correct the bishops, misinterpret Augustine and Benedict, and disparage those of us who are loyal to authentic apostolic teaching...and they do this with most subtle and sophisticated sophistry.

This is why I get a knot in my stomach every time I pick up a copy of that magazine. I read The NY Timesregularly with enjoyment and profit because I know what it is: a secular, liberal newspaper. America,by contrast, advocates similar values but under the guise of being a Catholic, albeit enlightened, voice. What ever happened to the filial obedience of St. Ignatius himself? Will someone please tell me why these editors, along with the univesity Presidents, who are so superior to our Pope and bishops, do not just take their institutions into The Episcopal Church?