Priorities

With his usual insight, David Brooks of the NY Times last week contrasted two conservative reactions to the Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage: Rod Dreher and similar "traditional radicals" call for a retreat into our own communities of faith and family while Robert George and kindred spirits associated with First Things urge us to continue the fight as we have with the abortion war. Brooks admits he is to the left of us on these cultural issues but identifies with conservatives and advocates a third option: engage with those who are most hurting in the restoration of family life and wholesome moral and communal values. My opinion is that the Church has to do all three...and at the same time. And people will be called to focus on different concerns. But given the limitations of energy and stamina, we need to set priorities. From where I stand, Dreher and the "trad-rads" are right: first and foremost we must strengthen and thicken our Catholic identity and solidarity in the face of an increasingly hostile society. Secondly, we need to follow the leadership of Pope Francis in going out to the peripheries and reach out to share our (spiritual, moral, emotional, social, intellectual) wealth with the needy (including the most needy...the 1 percent!). Isolation like the Amish is not possible for the Catholic Church. Actually the Mormon paradign (despite its narrow "Americanist" focus) is more helpful. At this point, it is probably good for us to divert energies from the Culture War and enter into a "cold war" phase in which there are less heated, inflamatory clashes even as we stand firm in our own beliefs. We will persevere in the culture war but in more covert, subtle and subversive fashion, much like the way St. John Paul II fought the Nazis, the Communists and later the Cultural Liberals. Focusing more on micro than macro-politics, we must be modest about how much we can directly impact the broader society as we avoid the twin ideological temptations to attribute saving efficacy to the state (the left) or free markets and individual freedom (the right). Regarding Church policy, we must avoid setting our current pontiff against his two predecessors. Rather, let us cherish the JP-Benedict heritage even while we follow Francis to the margins of society. They need not be in conflict. A genuinely CATHOLIC ethos will include both in a mutual enrichment.