Huffington Post Calls Catholic Online Editor 'Right Wing Catholic Activist'

I will do everything I can during this election to liberate Catholic Social Thought from those who seek to use it as a proof text for their own political agendas.

I intend to be right in the thick of this campaign because there is too much at stake to do otherwise.I will do everything I can to liberate Catholic Social Thought from those who seek to use it as a proof text for their own political agendas.

P>NEW YORK, NY (Catholic Online) - The day after former Senator Rick Santorum officially announced his campaign for the Presidency the Huffington Post ran a piece by Michael Keegan, the President of the People for the American Way, entitled "Rick Santorum: The Hapless Holy Warrior Starts Another Crusade."

The piece carried a definite editorial slant. I am not writing to criticize that. I have written several articles on the candidate and my pieces carried an editorial slant, of a very different kind. However, at least I was up front concerning this fact. I write because the article signals that the battle is underway in campaign 2012 and it will be rude and brutal.

Under a subsection in Keegan's piece entitled "Fans on the Far Right", Keegan lumps me in this stereotyped category writing, "In spite of Santorum's huge negatives, he has his cheerleaders among right-wing activists and pundits who think he could still emerge from the unimpressive GOP pack. Last month, right-wing Catholic activist Keith Fournier published a column that was essentially a mash note, declaring Santorum the winner of the South Carolina debate, calling his demeanor "Kennedy-esque," and gushing that Santorum's "courage to lead" is "what this Nation needs.".."

I was happy to be included with George Will and Kathryn Lopez because I respect them both - and enjoy their writing. However, I think the characterization of me as "far right" is incorrect. It is an example of the rhetoric too often used to dismiss people without having to engage their positions. I expect much more of this kind of use of code words as one of the most important elections of my lifetime takes shape. And yes, I stand by everything I wrote in that article on Senator Santorum. I do at least appreciate that Keegan put a link to my article in his article Maybe more people will read it and find out about this good man named Rick Santorum who is running for President.

What I found offensive about Keenan's piece was his dismissive and arrogant effort to disparage me through using stereotyped caricature and charged political labels. Initially, I was reminded of my dear mothers admonition to me years ago to, "consider the source". After all, for the President of the group which calls itself the "People for the American Way" while it opposes religious freedom and the Right to Life to oppose me is no surprise. In my legal career I had many contests with their lawyers. We were on opposite sides.

However, I am a Catholic who tries to take the teaching of my Church concerning Social Doctrine to heart and inform my political participation based upon it. This teaching is not liberal or conservative and I do not easily fit into those categories either. For example, I have a long record of opposition to the death penalty. I opposed the second incursion into Iraq based upon my efforts to apply the "Just War Theory". However, the author does not really care to engage with me or anybody else on important political issues, he simply wants to disparage by code word labeling.

I hope that the 2012 campaign presents an opportunity to engage the debate based upon the field of moral theology referred to as "Catholic Social Doctrine".  Prior to 2004 the phrase "Social Teaching" of the Catholic Church referred to the teachings found in the Sacred Scriptures, expounded upon in the Christian tradition, developed in the documents of the Second Vatican Council, explained within a contemporary series of encyclical letters, apostolic letters and exhortations, and wonderfully summarized in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Sadly, many people had not read these sources. So, what claimed to be the Social Teaching of the Catholic Church became the "spin" of self styled "experts" with political agendas.

Then on April 2, 2004, the Memorial of Saint Francis of Paola, Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino, President of the "Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace" released the "Compendium of the Social Doctrine of Church." It can be studied and read in full online here It can also be purchased here I recommend that every Catholic, indeed all Christians, other people of faith and all people of good will purchase this outstanding compendium. It is a tremendous resource. 

The social doctrine of the Church confronts what Pope Benedict called the "Dictatorship of Relativism" and insists there are unchangeable truths such as the dignity of every human person at every age and stage which must form the foundation of any just society. To be Pro-Life is not about a "single issue", it is about a world view. It is this dignity of the human person which requires a respect for every human life whether that life be in the first home of the womb, a wheelchair, a jail cell, a hospital room, a hospice, a senior center or a soup kitchen.

Another truth is that marriage is between one man and one woman, intended for life, and ordered toward the bearing and raising of children in the family. Marriage is not some social construct which can be redefined by courts or legislatures. It is also one more example of a word we must not give up - for the sake of the true common good. It is the foundation for family and family is the first society, first church, first school, first economy, first government and first mediating institution. The first community which humanizes and civilizes all of us is the family.

Another truth is that all human persons created in the Image of God are created for relationship and called to human community. We can never fully experience human flourishing outside of social relationships. These relationships are perfective of our human person because we are by nature - and grace - made for these relationships. Catholic Social Thought does not begin with the individual but with the family.

The social doctrine rejects a notion of "freedom" which begins and ends with the isolated, atomistic, person as the measure of its application. Authentic human freedom must be exercised within a moral constitution. We will only experience freedom when we choose what is good and what is true. Otherwise "freedom" becomes a counterfeit and enslaves. The social doctrine also recognizes our obligation in solidarity to one another. We are our brother/sister's keeper.

The social doctrine offers principles to help us order our economies but does not propose any particular economic theory. Rather, it insists that every economic order be at the service of the human person, human freedom, human flourishing and the family. We are called to give a love of preference to the poor, recognizing our solidarity with them. However, this call to solidarity is to be applied through the application of the principle of subsidiarity, rejecting all forms of dehumanizing collectivism, either of the left or the right.

The market economy has been affirmed in recent social teaching as having a potential for promoting these goods - when properly understood and morally structured. However, the Catholic Church stood against the materialism of the atheistic Marxist system and cautions Nations which have adopted a form of liberal capitalism of the dangers of "economism" or materialism which promotes the use of persons as products and fails to recognize the value of being over acquiring.

The truths and principles contained within Catholic social doctrine are not merely "religious" positions, in the sense that only religious people need assent to them. They are revealed by the Natural Law and can be known through the exercise of reason. The truths are true for all people and for all time. The Church calls us to offer them as leaven to be worked into the loaf of human culture. We are called to build a truly just and fully human society. The Church walks the way of the person.

I will do everything I can during this election to liberate Catholic Social Thought from those who seek to use it as a proof text for their own political agendas. Often, that has meant opposition from those who would be considered "on the left" in contemporary political parlance. That appears to include Michael Keegan. However, it also includes opposition from some considered "on the right" who have either not considered the teaching or have opted for a very different philosophical foundation.

If Michael Keegan took the time to consider former Senator Rick Santorum's life of public service as well as his admirable dedication to his family and his nation, he might not have been so quick to dismiss him with such pejorative phrases as "far right" and "extreme".  Further, if he took the time to read the candidates 2005 book entitled "It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good" he might have learned something.

Then, assuming he disagreed with some of the candidates' positions,or even all of them, a genuine discussion might be possible.  Instead, Michael Keegan wrote an editorial piece which was both ill informed and disrespectful.  At least that's the way it looks to this "right wing Catholic activist". I was not about to let it pass. In fact, I intend to be right in the thick of this campaign because there is too much at stake to do otherwise.

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