Last Monday the Cardinal opinion staff’s own Michael Podgers wrote an article criticizing a program put on by Badger Catholic during Valentine’s Day. The program, run outside of St. Paul’s Catholic Church, featured men giving away roses to women that had notes in them. In his piece, Mr. Podgers criticized Badger Catholic for reinforcing outdated gender stereotypes, and demeaning women by self-determining for them their inherent dignity.
As a Catholic at UW, I was saddened to see such a kind gesture from a faith-based organization twisted into some sort of commentary on the Church’s backwardness in standing against people engaging in uncommitted sex. Aside from that, what was really troubling about Mr. Podgers response was how he justified his unwarranted attacks on Badger Catholic by using his own Catholic faith and a few handpicked comments from Pope Francis I as a means for giving his thoughts some official backing. As a “liberal” Catholic he writes, “Badger Catholic [feels] patronizing and archaic views are more important to promote than the more beautiful sides of the Church: charity, caring for the poor, musing and art and education.”
If anything Mr. Podgers article presents a localized version of a disturbing national trend that has occurred in how the mainstream American media has portrayed the extraordinarily beautiful ministry of the Pope. In being named Person of the Year by magazines such as TIME, Rolling Stone and even the gay-rights focused publication The Advocate; Francis was written about extensively in front-cover features that led to him achieving rock-star status within the United States. Personally, I think the fascination with Pope Francis is born out of a response to his humble nature along with his paternalistic style of love towards everyone he encounters that one could only find in a caring father. However, when reading these features fully it is clear that those who write them are less concerned with what Francis has done and are more concerned with promoting a few select things he has said.
The truth is “liberal Catholicism” is a myth, and an utter contradiction in the same way that “conservative Catholicism” is. The fact that Mr. Podgers thinks this is an intellectually plausible stance reveals just how ignorant he truly is about the faith he attempted to libel. Catholic social teaching is not translatable to our national political pendulum, as much as partisans on both sides of the aisle wish it were. It's about truth. Anyone who is unwilling, or unable to see this is simply missing the point. While political ideology in our country is based off of a little over two centuries of political action, and three centuries of philosophy (John Locke vs. Thomas Hobbes); the Catholic intellectual tradition sits on a bedrock-hard foundation of 2,000 years worth of heavily involved history. The teachings based off this accumulated knowledge form the backbone of why leaders in the Church talk and think the way that they do.
Some of the most spiritually insightful people in human history have written extensively in the mold of the Church’s’ tradition to define just how Catholics are supposed to apply their faith to their daily lives. People such as St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Augustine of Hippo, St. Ignatius of Loyola, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien—to name a few—have all contributed beautifully written philosophical works, novels and even prayers to give timeless guidance to people inside and out of the faith. Through centuries of thoughtful reflection along with substantial writing it is these men who built the modern tone of love, charity, prudence, service and piety that exists in the Church today, not Pope Francis. The beautiful works of mercy carried about by those who live by the Catholic faith did not start at the moment Cardinal Bergolio changed his name upon election to the papacy, but rather were built from centuries of courageous hard work from some truly remarkable people. What has changed though is the level of exposure from the secular media, and for that we have the humility of Pope Francis’ daily actions to thank.
The reality of the situation is that the Church is not changing its views on issues that secular liberals have demanded it reconsider such as gay marriage, abortion or birth control. While some initial comments made by the Pope in the beginning of his papacy may have given the press a glimmer of hope that these imposed reforms may occur, I think it will become clear five years down the line once Francis becomes established in his papacy that the Church will remain committed to promoting the dignity of every human person and speak out against behaviors that subvert it. At the end of his opinion Mr. Podgers claims that he, along with other “liberal” Catholics, are being ignored by Badger Catholic for promoting a sexist and outdated social hierarchy. The real question to consider is, Mr. Podgers, who is ignoring whom?
