The Dissonance, the Pain, the Love of the Liberal Catholic

It is amazing: the depth, intensity and persistence of the love he has for the Church, the "Spirit of Vatican II" Catholic. For almost 40 years the liberal Catholic (one who rejects the Catholic view of sex and gender)has lived with dissonance, disappointment and sadness. Yet, he remains faithful to the Church. Logic would require that he merely move down the street to the Episcopalian or other Protestant congregation that mirrors his views. But a deeper, non-cognitive, emotional/spiritual bond keeps him united, if resentfully, to Mother Church. They are now starting to die off, for example those who were young priests or nuns in the 1960s and drank deeply of the euphoria for change. Many, I think especially of religious sisters, have lived generous lives of service to the poor. It is not their fault that they fail to understand and accept the Church's teaching. Swept along mimetically by cultural change, they remain reactive against a narrow and negative view of sex and gender that they attribute to the "pre-Vatican II" Church. They just do not get it! They missed the boat, the ship...the key catechesis of John Paul on sexuality. They haven't really heard it or read it or more likely they had already committed their intellects to a sterile view of sex. There is a great poignancy about them: their faith cannot be handed down to succeeding generations. They maintain a split loyalty: to the Church and to a liberalism that is hostile in fundamental ways to Catholicism. Their children cannot maintain this tortured ambivalence: they will move away from the faith or embrace it joyously in defiance of a social order gone anti-Catholic. There are almost no young priests and religious to carry the torch: religious vocations are almost all of a more conservative cast. The surge of optimism in reaction to Pope Francis will become, unfortunately, another disappointment. Pope Francis cannot change the Church in the fundamental ways they desire. And he does not want to. He seems compelled to downplay or avoid the important culture issues because he has a longing to reconcile and to show only mercy to "those on the outskirts." But regrettably, he is causing confusion: stirring up false hopes among liberals and discouragement among those of us committed to the Church's positions. This pope gives us good example by his way of life: simple, poor, charitable. But he will not reverse the body of teaching left by the previous dual-pontificate. Charity and justice require that we respect the Liberal Catholic...for the generous service to the poor, for the faithfulness to the Church. and for the pain of disappointment and dissonance suffered over these years.