Pope Francis challenges the Catholic left

Pope Francis challenges the Catholic left 

and the Catholic left challenges Francis. The spirit of prophesy is not found in community. It is an encounter of the individual with the Spirit. A voice crying out in the wilderness. The Pope's remarks were directed at all forms of partisanship, including the EWTN and Opus Dei wings of the Church. The essence of a Catholic Church is universality of belief, meaning it agrees on what it believes when all it has is belief. Divergence from common belief is non-Catholic. It does not claim to be common belief. It is an individual expression of the faith of the writer. Whether it catches on is a question for the Spirit. 

Dissent from those things that can be known, such as sexuality, is not a loss of common faith but is an objection to the Church's visible and vincible errors, such as sacred continence and worries about sexual pleasure. The left does not want just tolerance of gay marriage, we want the whole of the Church to celebrate such unions. Hiding behind tradition to practice intolerance is not the way of Christ. Tolerating heterosexual civil marriage and not gay marriage in personnel decisions must be denounced as bigotry, not as protecting tradition.

The belief that law enforcement can protect the unborn comes from either misunderstanding of law at best and fraud in the name of partisanship at worst. The belief that economic justice will do what police power cannot is an expression of both faith and religion. No one in the Catholic left opposes it. Zero population growth is a secular belief, not a Catholic one.

Social science (which includes theology) is about understanding. Faith is a response to the Spirit. Loyalty to religion is a human thing. Marxist analysis looks at how power is manifested through money, often corruptly. Gender theory is about power in sexual relations. They are no more or less about sentimentality than using "saving the babies" or opposing  the transgendered as a populist issue. The noise on both of these issues comes from the right-wing, it did not start on the left.

No one on the left wants management on a capitalist model. God forbid! We want a return to the democracy of the early church, where Bishop really meant Pastor (not local lordling), and even these were elected. Lest we forget, we still elect popes and there is no reason for them to be seen as monarchs. 

The tone of Fratelli Tutti is the most radical thing about it. Gone are the absolutes of Vatican I and Veritatis Splendor. It is entirely pastoral. A homily for the faithful from the world's parish priest, not an infallible teaching from the throne (which is the height of papal relativism - putting authority before truth).

Francis' talk was a warning to those he consecrates and creates not to be as partisan as their predecessors. He wants to be a pastor, not a movement.

The litany of issues cited in the article are the usual statement of MSW's pet peeves with those he sees as the left. They have little to do with what Francis wrote.  If he has a particular leftist in mind, he should name names, not stand on euphemism. The reality of the Catholic left is that there is no one form of it. There are Maryknolls, Catholic Workers and Franciscans, as well as liberal bloggers and theologians. We are not all one thing. Do we have our share of nutty people? Definitely. Life would be no fun without them. They are fools for Christ.